A Story set in the Future
by Harold Weathervein
Summary: Through chapter 83 has now been posted! Read it and see what you think! I swear its almost done! Please Review! PS this story may seem like it's finished, but it isn't yet, just for everyone who has reviewed and was confused as to whether or not it was
1. Chapter 1

This is my first story. It is loosely inspired by Samurai Deeper Kyo, but the resemblance ends there. This is the first chapter of many, but I wanted to see what people thought of it before posting all of it here, so please review so I can see if it is worth my time to continue or not.

PS. I wasn't particularly pleased with this chapter, it gets more interesting (in my opinion) in the next few chapters, so please continue reading before formulating your thoughts.

As always, I do not own Samurai Deeper Kyo.

Chapter one

Over the forest road, through the middle of what felt like a primordial Earth, ran a Ducati motorcycle, dangerously close to the maximum speed for the current weather conditions. It was dark out, probably early morning or late night. Most people still awake would debate over whether they could return to sleep for a few more hours or would be lying awake, feeling guilty with whatever personal secrets creep into people's minds at that hour. But the rider skirting the hillsides and flying over the small creeks did not ponder matters of sleep or guilt. His focus was on the white fog lines of the deserted back road; besides, his thoughts never showed much of an allegiance to his conscious, making others wonder if he had one at all. But it was good like that; it had been desirable.

The trees that grew in thick patches, hovering around and crowding the numerous creeks, were gently swayed by the wind, but otherwise it was a calm night. There was nothing, therefore, to distract the world from the great crash that occurred when the rider suddenly misjudged a bend in the road. The turn was far sharper than it had looked, and the fog lines had blurred in his sight, so he had attempted to turn to the right too late and the bike ended up skidding out from beneath him. As it slid, his right side made contact with ground, and he was pulled off the bike, which continued to slide a good many more feet. Had anyone been present to witness the accident, they would have sworn that the rider would have been skinned entirely to the bone, but instead the rider rolled onto his back, where he proceeded to remove his full coverage black helmet with both hands, revealing, for the first time in several hours, his face to the world. After taking off his helmet, his hands held it against his chest for a few minutes while he took in quick, shallow breaths that hung in the cold air when they exited his mouth.

Slowly, pushing up on his elbows, and then leaning onto his hands, he moved into a sitting position with his legs stretched out in front of him. After resting another moment, his head hanging back as if he were looking up at the sky, the rider shifted his weight to his left side, pushing himself up to stand. His right knee and hip hurt the worst, since he had worn only a pair of blue jeans, and they were not exactly the most tear resistant clothing, but it could have been worse. While his shoulder had also taken a good beating in the fall, it was protected from the well-worn road by his thick leather biker's jacket, which, to match his helmet, t-shirt, and leather doc martins, was also black. It was a good color for him; it matched his hair and his expressions most of the time as well. As he slowly stalked his way towards his bike, much in the same manner that one might approach a nemesis you were about to call out to a duel, he kept an air of composure that one would never have thought possible after such an accident. Upon reaching the bike, he bent down to take the handlebars, which he pulled up on to try to get the bike standing upright again. It was easy enough, since it was light. It was a racing bike after all. As he stared at it, there didn't appear to be too much damage, but it was still scraped up enough for him to mutter a "shit" beneath his breath. In the next town, village, burg, whatnot, he would have to track down a garage and make sure it really was ok. Right now in the dark, there was little to do but push on. He had his reasons to keep moving. He was on the run after all.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter two

When morning light spread its long fingers over the horizon, our rider continued on, nothing more than a black blur on the road, a minor distraction from the morning's promise of a beautiful day. Having made good time even after the crash, the rider wasn't worried about pursuers anymore. If they hadn't caught up by now, most likely they had grown tired of the chase. Besides, they had much more important things to do than chase him around. Most likely he would have been considered a bad investment. He knew he would be considered an insignificant loss, a minor setback, in the grand scheme of everything.

As the road twisted around the side of a hill and started to descend, the rider slowed, staring into the cleared valley below. There were fields and a stream in the distance, but what caught his interest was the presence of a town. It was small; more than likely it had been a small farming community at one time, and it might still be able to be one again, he didn't think there had been any targets near here to cause any nuclear fall out that would have affected soil and water quality, but with a strong enough wind, who knew what was possible. And it wasn't bombs people needed to worry about now, not that he cared, as long as there was a garage, he really couldn't give a fuck. And so, with a mild disregard for whatever future would come, he began a descent into the valley.

The closer he came to the town didn't really matter; it didn't affect him in any way. And then he noticed it. What he thought had been debris in the road moved, and not just in a straight line; it moved back and forth at varying speeds. He slowed his bike and concentrated all his focus on the object; and then he realized what it was, and what it meant, and was actually surprised for the first time in a very long while. The town was inhabited.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

The town was inhabited.

People actually lived there. Still.

He wondered if he had actually driven that far west. He knew he had reached the foothills, for obvious reasons, such as the hill he had just driven down, but he hadn't thought he could have reached the mountainous areas where there were rumored to have been independent settlements. 'Independent settlements my ass,' he thought, and prepared for the worst. He was truly thankful that he had wiped out on a right turn earlier instead of a left one, otherwise his precious Rayban aviator sunglasses, with dark green lenses and black wire frame, which he always kept in his left inside coat pocket, might have been broken. To him, they were a necessary tool, as important as his lungs.

As he made his way into town, he kept his full coverage helmet on, not bothering to lift the shade on it to appear even the slightest amount friendlier to the villagers. Besides, if he was any sort of judge of character, he knew they weren't looking for any friends. As he rolled through town slowly, scanning for a garage, he seriously considered just continuing on his way; the people were skiddish, running into buildings and closing doors and windows upon sight or sound of him. However, he didn't know when he would find the next town, and he needed to check his bike. He wanted to make sure it worked if he got into some sort of jam later on. As he neared the end of the town's main street, which was also the backcountry road he had come into town on, he noticed a large two-story house with an impressive four or five car garage. Parked outside was a tow truck. 'This must be the place,' the rider said to himself, and he stopped the bike and lifted his left leg to get off the seat, since his right leg hurt too much to try to move any more than absolutely necessary.

"Can I help you, sir?" came from the inside of the garage, and the rider cursed himself for having let his guard down. He did, however, make no excuses about being tired or hurt in response to his failure to pay attention, and that was at least a little honorable.

'I'm going to have to keep my attention up if I'm going to deal with these skiddish villagers,' was his only response for his anger towards his lapse of focus. However, before he could answer the slightly overweight but tall man dressed in jean overalls, wiping his hands on a small, worn, red cloth, who looked every bit the part of a mechanic, the man began to speak again.

"That's a nice bike you got there, but what happened to the back? You get in an accident? I bet it was up on the hills, those corners can be trickier than they let on." The man seemed nice enough, and he wasn't frightened or threatening, unlike the other villagers. The man walked over to the bike and squatted, lifting up the damaged exterior and examining the inner regions of the bike. "Looks like she'll be fine, too bad the outside's a little messed up, but I suppose that can be fixed, in time." The rider stood there, not even realizing he hadn't even taken off his helmet. The man stood back up and looked at the rider. The scrutinizing look he gave the rider made him realize that this mechanic was much, much more than a villager. He seemed to be discerning and wise. The rider was not afraid, nor was the mechanic, despite the rider's dark and unfriendly appearance, since his next move was to hold out his hand and introduce himself as Ichiro. The rider took it, still with his helmet on.

"Let me guess," the mechanic said next before the rider could even think of what he should possibly say, "you're Kyo, aren't you?"


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter four

The rider stood there. It was a good thing he had left his helmet on, otherwise Ichiro, the friendly and seemingly intelligent middle-aged mechanic, would have noticed how utterly taken aback he was. Ichiro continued to shake the rider's hand, eventually saying, "It's nice to meet you, Kyo. So did you do the work on this bike?"

The rider took off his helmet and immediately put on his sunglasses, merely saying "yeah" in response to Ichiro's question. As Ichiro looked up at the man for the first time, he thought he had done well in navigating the situation. The man didn't look like the scum of the earth, and he certainly didn't appear to be from the army. Thank God for that. Indeed, he looked like a handsome, albeit, rough and melancholy, young man, probably no more than 23 years old, or so Ichiro thought.

The rider kept looking at the bike through his sunglasses not knowing what to say. Ichiro had not disappointed the rider; he was as wise as he seemed. Instead of creating awkwardness that could have led to a great many bad outcomes, he had given the rider a sense of personal space and anonymity by creating an identity for him. This way he wouldn't have to lie, he could just play along.

'Stranger things have happened, besides, 'Kyo' isn't such a bad name,' was his thought on the matter. He wondered how the man had picked a name so quickly, and one that wasn't stupid or silly on top of it.

The mechanic had already returned to inspecting the bike. "It sure is a beauty. I'll tell you what," the man said, moving his hands which had been perched on his hips in order to cross his arms over his chest, "why don't you stay here and fix it up. I have tools if you need any, and you look like you could use the rest. And maybe a few bandages." It was then that Kyo realized that the man was staring at his beat-up right side, which was conveniently facing towards Ichiro. Kyo look down at his torn-up jeans. He hadn't realized in the dark, but he had gotten a little cut up and it looked like some blood and other bodily fluids (by which I mean pus and other nasty things, nor urine or anything like that...) had begun to seep through the jean material.

"I live alone in this house, and as you can see, its big enough to satisfy a large family's needs, so you can have your choice of rooms to sleep in. We have food here aplenty, too, all locally grown of course, not that there's much choice these days. You can stay as long as you like, all I ask is that you help out around the shop as long as you're here and clean up after yourself. You obviously know enough about engines to help a mechanic, and I would love the help and the company. God knows I keep this town's everything running."

Kyo took in a deep breath. He didn't not trust Ichiro, but he was suspicious. Especially while he could tell that the rest of the bloody town behind him was drilling their eyes into his back, probably anticipating the moment he would get on his bike and get the hell out of their God forsaken little town. 'Well too fucking bad for them' thought Kyo. He was just too tired, sore, and hungry. His nerves were obviously shot, too, as he had revealed to the world earlier by being startled merely by a man standing patiently in a driveway. He needed to rest. Besides, he'd seen worse threats than whatever this little town could muster up, and he was still standing after all. He picked up his medium sized black duffle bag he had tied down to the back of the ducati that was actually a second seat. Not that it was ever used.

"I'll take that as a deal then." Said Ichiro, in a surprisingly not too annoying voice. Kyo found himself wondering if this wouldn't be that miserable of an experience after all, following Ichiro through the door in the back of the garage that opened into the house.


	5. Chapter 5

In this chapter I use a few honorifics. Since I know very little about Japan or its culture, I mostly use english standard honorifics (like Miss, and Mrs. and whatnot), but if this bothers you then you can just fill in the correct Japanese equivalent while you read. I didn't want to make the mistake of using a word incorrectly, so I just stuck with my native english and I hope thats ok.

Also, thank you to DyingFrog or Kaeru-sama for the review. You said to continue, so here's a few more chapters! Reply again if you would like a few more!

Chapter Five

The garage door led into a service/laundry room that was fairly large and contained not only the washer and dryer but also a sink and a couple large cabinets. They were closed, and Kyo wasn't exactly curious about what was inside. The laundry room itself had another door in the far wall that led into a large kitchen. Next to the laundry room entrance in the kitchen were stairs leading to the second level of the house. Two of the walls, the ones across the way and to the left from the laundry room were lined with counters which contained an oven, microwave, a double sink, refrigerator, and various other appliances and more cabinets probably holding various kitchen utensils. The wall on the left also had a door with a large glass window in it leading to the back yard, which was mostly dirt, but the window (there was also a large one over the counter) did have a nice view of the mountains in the distance. The entire middle of the room was taken up by a gigantic round table, completely vacant of any contents. It had several chairs around it. It was turning out that Ichiro wasn't lying about the house being meant for a large family. But once again, Kyo didn't really care. Ichiro announced the room as the kitchen, Kyo thought 'no shit' and they moved up the stairs.

The stairs ended abruptly with a door, and a hallway that turned to the left with more doors on either side. There were two more large windows at the ends of the hall, and Kyo was starting to get the impression that someone really liked lots of light. This building was obviously not made by one of Kyo's kindred spirits.

'At least I can wear my sunglasses inside without having to come up with a lame excuse,' but then again, Ichiro didn't seem like the kind that would ask for an explanation of something so ridiculous if he didn't even ask for his name, or anything else about the mysterious motorcycle rider for that matter.

Ichiro opened the door directly across from the stairs and led Kyo into a fairly spacious bedroom. The bed was queen sized, and pushed against the wall that faced the backyard.

'Oh yay, another huge window' Kyo exclaimed sarcastically in his head as he observed the window whose sill was only a few inches above the top of the bed and ran practically the length of the bed, which was just about the width of the room. 'At least this one has real shutters, unlike those thin, frilly yellow things down stairs.' Kyo was remembering the sheer yellow material that masqueraded as drapes on the window and door in the kitchen. While they lent cheer and color to the room, he was right in that they did little, if anything, to protect from the sun. Also inside the room were a small bedside table and a large, blue, velvety armchair that stood in the corner of the room, across from the bed and was meant for sitting at while apparently working at the card table in front of it. As he turned his attention to the left, Kyo noticed two more doors; one was a huge closet filled mostly with boxes, but it wasn't as though Kyo needed the space. The other door led to a personal bathroom. He was grateful to have that much privacy and thought again that maybe this wouldn't be so miserable.

"I'll be back with a first aid kit in a minute. Then I'll leave you to yourself if your wounds aren't that bad while I fix dinner." Ichiro left Kyo standing just inside the room, duffle in his left hand, and sunglasses on. Kyo turned to watch Ichiro disappear down the stairs, before walking to the opposite side of the room and placing his black duffle on the vacant card table. He then sat on the edge of the bed waiting for Ichiro who returned shortly.

After removing some bandages and disinfectant from the kit, Kyo walked into the bathroom and shut the door. He put the stuff on the counter, and looked into the mirror, his hands on the counter as he leaned into it with a little of his weight. He took another deep breath and let it out audibly, then stood up straight and took off his sunglasses. He looked back into the mirror at his reflection, and, more importantly, at his own eyes. They didn't bother him at all, but he knew they unnerved others. Perhaps if his eyes were more like theirs, they wouldn't be so strange and disconcerting; perhaps if they weren't blood red.

After a quick shower, Kyo took care of his few small cuts quickly; there was nothing he could do about the large bruises forming all down the right side of his body. He had just changed (into another black t-shirt and pair of blue jeans), when Ichiro came in to announce that dinner was ready. When he saw Kyo's dirty clothes, he said that he could place them, with anything else dirty, in the hamper in the closet, and that tomorrow he could wash them. Remembering the tears in the jeans, Ichiro thought a moment before speaking.

"After you've washed your clothes, if you have anything that needs mending, my neighbor, Mrs. Aizawa, can help. She is excellent with a needle and thread, among other things."

Kyo just put his laundry down and followed Ichiro to the kitchen, where he sat at the overly large table, not caring what Ichiro made as long as it wasn't poisoned.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six

A few days had passed. Ichiro was pleasant, not that Kyo cared that much about the man's personality, as long as he was bearable. Kyo was more impressed with Ichiro's openness and understanding. He was a good mechanic, but as it turned out, he was also an electrician, plumber, and all around handy man. He could apparently fix just about anything. The town knew it too, and when it was revealed that he had taken Kyo into his home, the wary town accepted it without any voiced complaint, though you would have to have been an idiot to have not felt the tension, and the fear.

Kyo was getting used to the town and its residents. At first he had meant to leave in just two days, but when he woke up late the next morning, so stiff and sore that he could barely move, he set his plans off for another day. He then resumed with what Ichiro had suggested, included going to Mrs. Aizawa's house across the street to ask her to mend his jeans. Ichiro went with him; Kyo was pretty sure she wouldn't have opened the door otherwise. She was surprisingly kind; she had been a farmer's wife, with two children, both boys, who were about 11 and 8 years old. Apparently her husband had died a few years ago in the war. She gladly mended the jeans, bringing up the fact that she owed Ichiro so many favors for fixing appliances and helping her ever since her husband had disappeared that it really was no big deal. She brought them over later with some vegetables for Ichiro; apparently since currency had no worth since the war a couple years back, all trading here was done in terms of food value. No wonder Ichiro had no worries about food if he was always being paid in it.

Kyo had begun working in the garage on the third day in town. He had only met Aizawa-san and her two boys, so there was still no trouble from the townspeople and Ichiro seemed thrilled to have some company other than his fellow villagers, as Kyo liked to think of them. Apparently Ichiro thought of them in a similar manner.

It was later that day, while Kyo had been working underneath some farmer's old truck, that a customer came in. Kyo didn't notice her until she standing at the edge of the garage because she walked so quietly. He saw the feet, and figured it was some farmer's wife needing assistance. He crawled out from under the truck, putting on his sunglasses as he sat up and looked at her. As he stared he tried to gauge whether he thought he would be up to the challenge of trying to communicate with the villager, since he didn't see Ichiro at the moment. As he looked at her, he was a little stunned. He was not the sort of man to really appreciate looks, and he certainly wasn't the type to go around admitting when women looked good, but he had to say, for a frail looking waif, this girl definitely played the role well. She wore a long dress with long sleeves that was a light peach color; he was surprised she wasn't sweating since it was fairly hot. Her hair was a golden blond, and it was tied back in a glorious mass of frizzy curls at the nape of her neck. She wore white slip on tennis shoes with pinkish colored socks; both socks and shoes were fairly dirty, as if she had walked a great distance in them through muddy grass. He couldn't help a smirk as he thought that, despite the fact that she was probably about 18 years old, she definitely dressed like a child (what with wearing shoes and socks with such a nice dress).

Having made an assessment of her appearance, Kyo realized that not only had he not said anything, but she had not made even the slightest noise as well. The girl just stood there, as if she was so mortified she had turned to stone.

'Figures,' thought Kyo. 'Good thing I'm wearing these sunglasses or otherwise she probably would have runaway, screaming through the streets that I was some sort of demon from hell.' Kyo smirked again at that.

It was a good thing Ichiro showed up then, otherwise the two probably would have sat there all day, Kyo staring at her wondering if she was just a silly girl, or if there was something "special" about her; she certainly was acting like she wasn't firing on all cylinders.

"Hello Saya, how are you today?" Ichiro greeted her very kindly; he hadn't even addressed the Aizawa woman or her boys with such affection. Ichiro walked over to the girl, close enough so that Kyo couldn't hear what they were saying even though they were only a few yards away.

Saya had answered that she was fine. Ichiro then asked about both Mahiro and little Hotaro, and lastly about Kensuke. Saya replied kindly with her quiet-as-a-whisper voice that all were well. It was only then that Ichiro inquired about the tape player Saya clutched in her hands.

"It's not working, and Mahiro and Hotaru are upset. Well, mostly Hotaru," she added after a moment, looking at her feet and turning a nice shade of red.

"I understand," said Ichiro. Mahiro was old enough now to read quite well, and she was especially bright, so she read often. Hotaru was still young, and was a boy after all, so he would much rather watch old Disney movies than read any day of the week. "Let's see if we can't figure out the problem."

Ichiro then went into the house with Saya on his heels and tried to make the fickle machine work-he had a television in the living room that was connected to the kitchen on the first floor. He hadn't bothered to show it to Kyo since it was cluttered with spare parts and projects that Ichiro had started but never got around to finishing. The room was so full with old engines and carburetors, mufflers and who knew what else, that it was difficult to even find the T.V. After a few minutes of fiddling with the tape player, he found the problem and told Saya he could fix it now if she could wait awhile. She replied that that was fine with her.

"I'm assuming you've heard about my guest."

"Yes," she replied softly.

"He's not so bad. He's very quiet," Ichiro added, thinking it would please Saya, who glanced at him quickly in reply, and then looked away, back at the ground to make sure she didn't trip on anything as she followed Ichiro out of the living room.

"You don't have to say anything if you don't want to, I'm fairly certain he won't bother you," was all Ichiro said before returning back to the garage, carrying the dysfunctional tape player, with Saya in tow.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

As Ichiro and Saya stepped out into the garage, Kyo was just crawling out from under the truck after finishing fixing it up. He went and started it, revved the engine a few times, then turned it off and walked back to the tool counter that lined the back wall of the garage without even so much as a smile of satisfaction. Ichiro announced his pleasure at Kyo having done so well at fixing it, and so quickly! Kyo just muttered that it was done, with a good riddance attitude, and then walked to the other end of the garage to work on his own bike.

It took Ichiro only a few moments to fix the tape player. He continued to speak to Saya, but Kyo found it odd that he left no room for her talk.

'The girl must be 'special',' was the only explanation he could think of, after all, the girl had not said a word the entire time except perhaps when she wasn't facing Kyo, and even then he wasn't sure because he couldn't hear anything.

"You should bring Hotaro and Mahiro by tomorrow after they go to school," Ichiro went on to Saya. "Speaking of, when is Mahiro's birthday? It is soon isn't it? We should all get together to celebrate."

"It's the 15th," Saya replied, barely audible. Overall, Kyo was having what could basically be interpreted as a good time stealing sideways glances at the girl-woman Ichiro was bending over backwards to please. "That would be nice," Saya added. However, Kyo really didn't give much thought to the whole situation. He was interested in the girl in the way one was interested in a shiny object that caught his eye; it was a passing concern that truly didn't concern him at all.

As Ichiro finished and placed the tape player back into Saya's hands, he looked to see how low the sun was in the sky.

"Would you like a ride home?"

"No thank you, I'll be fine. Thank you again," was Saya's quiet reply.

"Don't worry about it, but for payment I expect to see Hotaro and Mahiro soon!" Ichiro called out after her as she began to walk down the driveway, cradling the tape player in her peach-sleeved arms.

"I'm going to start dinner, continue working on your bike if you like," was all Ichiro said, before he went inside, not bothering to wait for a reply that he knew wasn't coming.

'Strange how some people can end up so similar under such different circumstances,' Ichiro thought as he entered the laundry room and washed his hands in the sink. He was glad there was a sink there because he was a tidy person, who liked to keep the kitchen especially clean since all his meals were prepared there. 'It definitely wouldn't do to get all that oil and grease on the counter tops and then never be able to get it up and have it get all over the food. I could accidentally poison someone. On second thought…' Ichiro wasn't thinking about Kyo at the moment. It was just that sometimes the people in town graded on his nerves. Most of them had lived in the town before the war several years ago, and knew nothing about the world outside, and were now even less inclined to know it at all. No, he liked Kyo well enough. He pulled more than his weight, and he was excellent at fixing engines. And he came from the outside. Ichiro was definitely curious about the boy, but not enough to pry. His thoughts then turned back to the mutual silences of both Saya and Kyo, and wondered if perhaps they did have something in common as he began making dinner.


	8. Chapter 8

This chapter is somewhat boring, but it needs to be here so that the background is filled in, otherwise the situations that the characters are in won't make any sense! But don't worry, this will pass...

Chapter Eight

Kyo was coming close to finishing the work on his bike despite putting so much time into other jobs for Ichiro, who decided quickly that Kyo could easily handle all of the cars, so he went around helping people fix their appliances or toilets or pumps, or whatever else had to be done that involved people skills. Kyo was grateful for that; he had no desire to meeting more of the townsfolk.

All in all, life with Ichiro for the past three days hadn't been bad; Ichiro never bothered him, and generally they only talked about where Ichiro was going to be should anything 'happen' while he was out. Ichiro figured Kyo would be fine since most of the aggressive male villagers worked in the fields during the day; Kyo knew he would be fine for other, more violent reasons. There was no doubt he could handle himself among a bunch of farmers. That would just be a joke, an insult, to his pride should anyone try to start anything with him.

Kyo didn't wait for Ichiro to come out and announce dinner. When he found a good stopping place, he went inside the laundry room and washed his hands, then walked into the kitchen and sat down at the large kitchen table. The overhead light was on, so he felt absolutely no urge to remove his sunglasses which he had worn for the better part of the last three days, even while working on cars (unless he was beneath them, then he had to take them off to see what he was doing, but they were always within arms' reach). Ichiro never asked about the glasses; instead, he began to talk about a stranger subject that seemed irrelevant to Kyo.

"Her name is Saya Takahiro. She lives outside of town in a large farmhouse with her uncle Kensuke and her nephew and niece, Hotaro and Mahiro, who are still children. Kensuke has owned that house for just about forever, and when Saya and her sister Sakura's parents died when they were children, long before the war, they went to live with their uncle. Kensuke isn't necessarily a 'bad' man, but he likes to drink and, despite his best intentions, or at least his intentions according to the people in this town, has never been able to quit, or even attempted to, as I understand it." Kyo was seriously starting to wonder where in the world this was going, considering Ichiro had never once mentioned anything about this town and now it seemed like he couldn't stop. "Anyway, Sakura quickly met a young man here and they married extremely young; I figure she wanted to get out of that house. Saya, on the other hand, stayed; you see, Saya has some sort of emotional disorder or something. It was never fully explained to me, and I'm not quite sure anyone really knows for sure what is wrong with her, or if its even just her personality. Some even say its mild autism, but she is deathly afraid of talking to people. She avoids practically all social interactions and only speaks a few words if she answers you at all. She was picked on a lot as a child, but because her sister was very out-going, Saya was eventually left alone. I met the girls almost right after they moved here; one of them had broken their bicycle, and they didn't want to risk their uncle's rage, so they brought it to me. Sakura said it was her fault, but I think she was covering for Saya. I saw Saya, and that was it; I immediately felt like a father figure for the first time in my life. She started hanging around here more and more, and now this is where she comes if she needs anything. But, back to the story, Sakura ended up having Mahiro and Hotaro, wait 'til you meet them, they're just a barrel of laughs, but her and her husband died in the war. I guess they were just at the wrong place at the wrong time, but enough people died those days that it almost wasn't surprising that at least a few people from this town would have perished somehow in the incident."

'Yeah, some fucking incident,' Kyo thought to himself. It was a couple years ago now. Kyo hadn't been around for the bombings, but he had seen tapes and had heard the stories. He had, of course, also seen the cities themselves. Or, at least, what remained of them. Empty shells twisted and disfigured; bent iron and shards of glass among other things were strewn all about the streets. Few places remained for people in the cities, especially due to the radioactivity that still lingered there. No, the survivors had led mass exoduses out from the surrounding areas and had moved into smaller towns nearby. And that was just the beginning, for after the nuclear bombs were used, the invading armies began to sweep in and finish off the migrating groups and surviving towns with regular bombs, finally calling in foot soldiers to extinguish whatever else remained. Of course it wasn't that easy. One had to navigate the fall out, to make sure to avoid the radioactivity, and the survivors hadn't given up. He wasn't quite sure about the intelligence of destroying an entire country's well being; what was the point of taking over another country if you couldn't even use its own resources or settle there, because certainly they had destroyed the fertility of the land, and were wiping out the people that could otherwise be forced to work. Of course, he had had more than enough training to know that a threat could still be a threat unless entirely disassembled, which for him generally meant disemboweled. The fact was that military personnel tried to train survivors in secret, and many secret government labs, whose locations couldn't be secured, still existed. They undoubtedly had the same technology as the invaders, perhaps they were already implementing it…

But it wasn't Kyo's place to theorize on what was happening in secret, or even what could have been done differently. Like everyone else, he was just playing the cards he had been dealt to the best of his ability, or so he thought. That was one reason why he was so surprised to find an apparently untroubled settlement here; he had thought for sure small bands of the army would have swept this far out and already eliminated these threats, even though they truly didn't appear very threatening.

"Hotaro and Mahiro went to live with their uncle then, but Saya is the one who really takes care of them, and protects them from Kensuke. She should just leave and live in town, but I think she's afraid he'll come after them or something, and she is far too adjusted to life in that house. It's her home and I don't think she would want to leave it even if her life were on the line, she's that afraid of new things. So don't be offended if she doesn't speak to you, she doesn't speak to anyone!"

Kyo wondered why exactly Ichiro would tell him Saya's life history when it was rather evident from the five minutes Kyo had spent in her presence that she obviously didn't want anyone, let alone a stranger like him, to know anything about her at all.

Also, I don't know that much about autism (I read some online definitions and whatnot), so I don't mean to upset anyone. I was just trying to find a medical condition of some sort that would make Saya seem somewhat cold without her actually wanting to be, which would contrast Kyo's intentional coldness. Don't worry, I won't mention autism again (at least not for a long time)


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

The next day Kyo began to work again early in the morning, opening all of the garage doors (there were three total) to feel some fresh air, and hopefully get rid of some of the unknown stench leaking undoubtedly from one of the boxes nearby filled with God knows what. There seemed to be parts and pieces of cars and appliances all over the place; fixing things was obviously Ichiro's life.

An hour or so into the day, Kyo got up to stretch, having crawled under an old jeep earlier that morning and not moved since. His face and arms were covered with smears of grease and dirt, but he still looked fairly clean. He looked out onto the street, and noticed a figure walking into town. It turned out to be Saya, the woman-child from the day before, with two children in tow, each holding one of her hands. Both were wearing backpacks that didn't look particularly full, but it probably gave them the feeling of really going to school.

Saya was wearing a similar dress as the one from yesterday, only this one was navy blue with white poka dots. Her curly blonde hair was still pulled back into a large, messy bun. For a moment, Kyo wondered what it might look like down. Then he turned away before he saw that Saya herself had looked over to see him standing in the garage, wiping his hands with one of those grease-stained, red mechanic's towels.

-

It was early afternoon, and Ichiro was holed up in a room somewhere in the house while Kyo continued to work on the jeep.

'God damn piece of shit!" Kyo exclaimed to himself as it leaked oil all over his face. The car wasn't worth the effort. Suddenly, a pair of tiny feet appeared next to his waist, followed a pair of tiny hands, and finally a tiny head that peered at him under the car. Kyo quickly grabbed his sunglasses and rolled out from under the car, to stand at his full height and stare at the young boy still crouched on the ground. Kyo gave him one of most annoyed glares he could summon up, one that would have withered most men, but the boy just looked up at him in awe.

'Not to bright, are we,' Kyo thought as he lifted an eyebrow.

"Hotaro, come here, you're going to become filthy," punctuated the air. While it sounded like a comment only a middle-aged housewife would have said, it was distinctly uttered by the mouth of a twelve-year-old girl, directed toward the seven year old Hotaro. Kyo looked up with his annoyed glance, hands on hips, ready to fry whoever so happened to be the cause of all this commotion. What he saw was Saya walking up the drive way and a precocious little girl glaring just as evilly at Hotaro, who was apparently the rather unintelligent child who had broken Kyo's peace and quiet.

Kyo walked to the door that led into the laundry room and yelled for Ichiro, who came quickly with a puzzle look on his face that quickly dispersed upon seeing his guests.

"Welcome! How was school?" Ichiro asked Mahiro, who replied simply that it was 'silly.' When Ichiro inquired what made it silly, Mahiro replied that no one cared about learning, and instead yelled and chased each other. She herself apparently spent her days reading. Kyo raised an eyebrow again at what appeared to be the most elitist and intellectual twelve-year-old to have ever walked the earth.

"Well, at least you know what's important! Why don't we go inside and have some snacks. Kyo, you come in too." And with that, they all filed inside the house, Kyo bringing up the rear, and scowling the entire time, though no one could see it since none had eyes in the backs of their heads.

-

Inside it was nice and cool, since there were no windows in the kitchen to let any of the hot afternoon sun into the room (all windows faced the east, where the sun rose over the mountains). They all sat at the table, while Ichiro kept prompting Mahiro to tell him about school. The more she talked, the more she calmed down and the elitist tone began to leave her voice. It was quickly revealed that some boys had been giving her trouble, in fact, one of them was the elder Aizawa boy from across the street, and she didn't know why, but thought it was silly for them to taunt her.

"Silly Mahiro, they like you. Boys aren't good at expressing emotions at so young an age," was Ichiro's reply.

'Or ever, for that matter,' replied Kyo in his head. He wasn't exactly the touchy-feely kind, as would have been evident to anyone who saw him on the street.

Kyo then turned his attention to the woman sitting near him, who kept her mouth closed as tightly as a child who had just been reprimanded and now felt guilty. Hotaro was currently trying to pick his nose.

'What a group,' was his only response.

"Hotaro, don't do that, you'll hurt your brain," Mahiro chided.

"No I won't," Hotaro giggled back, continuing on with his prior activities.

"Boys are gross."

"Yes, they are," Ichiro chimed in.

Kyo was beginning to feel very much out of place.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter Ten

The evening had continued on easily enough. Hotaro stopped picking his nose, and began to merely fidget instead; Mahiro turned out to be a fairly bright and respectable young girl, with a firey hatred for all annoying boys, and girls for that matter. But despite the antics of the two younger members of the group, Kyo's attention kept turning towards Saya. She sat there quietly for an hour or so until Ichiro finally asked her if she was feeling alright. She gently nodded and gave a slight smile with the soft, "yes." But despite the silence, he thought he could feel her acclimating to his own presence; she, like Ichiro, must be slightly more discerning that the rest of the town, even though she still didn't talk to him. Or maybe he was just imagining it. Either way, she didn't pose a threat, so he didn't care.

"Where are you from?" Kyo looked at Mahiro, who had asked him the question.

"He's from out of town, Mahiro," Ichiro stated matter-of-factly rather quickly, as if anticipating the question. Kyo hadn't expected either child to take an interest.

"I know, but not many people come into town, so I was curious where it was like where he was from," Mahiro explained.

"I'm traveling," Kyo said.

"To where?"

"Does it matter, Mahiro?" Ichiro asked with a slight intonation that hinted at nervousness, despite the cheer in his voice. He seemed to know that the fewer questions asked, and answers given, the less at risk everyone would probably be later on. Kyo ran a hand through his jet-black hair, which shone a little red if he was standing in the sun.

"That's a nasty burn!" Mahiro stated. Kyo had forgotten about the scar on his inner left forearm.

"Yeah, that's what happens when you don't pay attention in the kitchen." He figured Saya and Ichiro would be grateful for the educational lie.

A while later Saya announced they had to go home so she could make dinner and they could do their homework for tomorrow. Ichiro offered a ride again, but it was refused once more.

As they left, Kyo was slightly torn between gratitude to whatever forces may be that he was finally released from his torture, and the ever so slightest bit of feeling of maybe missing them. But only the slightest. And it disappeared before he returned to working on his bike. He had decided to leave the jeep to Ichiro.

At dinner, Kyo announced his plans to depart the next morning, and Ichiro said he could take as much food and supplies as he felt he needed, though he knew that there were many small towns along the road, several deserted, which would make Kyo's life a little easier.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven

It was much later that night, well after dinner, when a knock came at the front door. Ichiro was upstairs, but Kyo had been in the kitchen, trying to pack, when he heard it. He called for Ichiro, but decided to open the door himself, since he didn't think any respectable person would call this late at night, and he was much more likely to be able to handle himself successfully in a fight than Ichiro, even if Ichiro did have influence over the villagers.

Kyo walked to the door briskly, preparing himself for a fight by wearing his game face, which was basically the same expression he wore all day long anyway. However, his glare wasn't all that effective, or wouldn't have been, due to his sunglasses. But when he opened the door, it wasn't an angry mob, but Saya, carrying Hotaro and holding Mahiro's hand, that he found standing on the doorstep.

Well, sort of standing. Saya was slouching, which was immediately noticeable in comparison with her normally perfect posture. Hotaro looked like he had been crying and might start again. Mahiro was completely silent. Saya just looked up at Kyo, her face having been tilted downwards. Her hair was a mess. It had been taken down from its usual bun, and was worn freely around her face so that it made it difficult to see her features, and Kyo quickly understood why.

Ichiro arrived right then, having run from upstairs, preparing himself for the fight that he too thought was coming. When he turned from the kitchen into the hall (which also led to the over-crowded living room) and saw Saya, he let out an audible gasp. Saya looked form Kyo to Ichiro, who quickly motioned for them to come in as he said it aloud. Saya walked straight past Kyo into the kitchen, still carrying Hotaro and holding Mahiro's hand. When she reached Ichiro he took Hotaro from her, and held him in his own arms. Saya looked back down at the ground as Kyo shut the door and walked into the kitchen behind her. Ichiro led her to a chair where she sat, still hold Mahiro's hand. Mahiro herself did nothing. She glanced at Saya occasionally, but mostly stared at he ground as well. Kyo could tell from the lack of panic this was not a unique or even unusual occurrence.

"I'll go down there, you stay here with Kyo. He's strong enough if anyone comes looking for you. You can do that for me, can't you?" Ichiro said, looking directly at Kyo now, eyes wide with seriousness.

"Yes."

Ichiro looked at Hotaro, and bounced him gently for a minute or two before placing him on a chair as well. Ichiro grabbed a couple things from the closet in the hall and locked the front door. He returned with a baseball bat and a shotgun, whispered to Kyo to go to the upstairs hall closet if he should need any sort of weapon, but before he could finish his instructions, Kyo told him not to worry. Ichiro understood. He knew that Kyo would not have traveled this far from wherever he came from without packing some sort of protection. After all, he still hadn't found out what exactly was in that black duffle bag.

Ichiro left through the garage door without saying anything else. His truck could be heard very clearly as its engine turned, and finally roared off down the street, as if it were some angry beast. The noise suited the feeling of the moment quite well.

Kyo turned his attention to his three charges. Saya was obviously hurt, but he couldn't tell how badly. The children looked alright, but shaken. He looked at Mahiro, who was consequently looking up at him as well.

"Let's get upstairs," was all he needed to say. The little group began its ascent up the stairs, Mahiro holding Hotaro's hand, flowed by Saya. Kyo walked behind to make sure she didn't fall over as they made their way to his room.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve

Kyo had told Mahiro to take Hotaro and lay down on the bed. The two had probably been in bed when the whole thing started, since they were wearing what appeared to be their pajamas. Since they weren't hurt, he figured having them lay down quietly on his bed might help them to just relax and rest. Meanwhile, he led Saya into the bathroom.

"Get up on the counter." She complied. He had brought his black duffle with him into the bathroom, but had also locked the bedroom door, so he would hear if someone was trying to get into the room in a sufficient amount of time to take care of it before the children were reached.

He opened the black duffle and took out a bundled cloth kit. He was glad he hadn't needed to use it in a long while, but he would probably have to tonight. He grabbed a number of hand towels from the cabinet over the toilet and had brought a sizable bottle of disinfectant alcohol from the kitchen. When he had all of the tools he figured would be necessary, he turned to Saya and stared at her for a moment, surveying her face. Then he lifted his hands to smooth back her hair. She merely stared at the ground the entire time.

What he found wasn't as bad as he had feared. She had a large abrasion, but the bleeding had stopped already. It would definitely cause a large headache, but probably wouldn't scar badly. He quickly took care of it. Besides that, her lip had been cut open slightly, probably due to a punch. It would swell and hurt like hell too. When he had finished with her face, he took a step back.

"Anywhere else?" She pointed to her back, and in the mirror he could see the dress was torn open and was slightly bloody.

'Shit,' he thought to himself, expecting a nasty stab wound or something equally vicious. Luckily as she turned and he undid the buttons down the back of her dress, he saw it wasn't that deep. But it would need stitches.

He gave her a rubber band from his kit to tie back her hair and he took out a needle and thread. He disinfected every thing, and then began. It went fairly quickly, he being quite experienced, and she not flinching. He was surprised. Most people couldn't handle stitches without anesthesia that well, especially if they weren't used to them. He then wondered if this too was not unusual and was almost curious enough to check for other scars. When he was done, he put a sterile cotton pad over the wound and taped it down so it wouldn't move and disturb the wound.

"Is that it?" She nodded in response to his question.

He packed everything up as she tried to do the buttons up again, but had difficulty since her left shoulder blade had that cut.

"Wait." He returned in a moment with a change of clothes for her. They were meant for him of course, so they wouldn't fit given the fact that he was not only about a foot taller, but also that he was far more muscular, but it beat sleeping in that torn-up dress. Mrs. Aizawa had given them to him to sleep in when she returned his jeans, but he found them so distasteful he had just placed them in the closet. He undid some more buttons for her, then took the duffle and left, closing the bathroom door behind him.

Hotaro and Mahiro seemed asleep, but as he walked to the blue velvety chair he heard a quiet, "Is Saya ok?" Mahiro was propped up on her right elbow, rubbing her eyes with her left fist.

"Yeah, she'll be out in a minute."

Kyo had heard running water in the bathroom for a long while before Saya came out. She was wearing the matching pajama set, with the top buttoned up as high as it would go, which wasn't very far, since it had a large collar. The set was a light blue color. As Kyo watched her exit out of the bathroom with her damp hair pulled back into its usual messy bun (she had washed her hair in the sink to get rid of some blood in it from the abrasion on her forehead), he felt his stomach become slightly unsettled.

'She looks good in my pajamas,' Kyo thought. Shrugging it off as he turned his attention to the wall and she walked to the bed and laid down next to Mahiro and Hotaro, he added, 'well, I guess it's a good thing somebody does.'

He decided to leave the light, which sat in the bedside table, turned on, just in case, and waited to hear some noise that would indicate Ichiro had come home.


	13. Chapter 13

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, if anyone is actually reading this story! I hope it gets better (not so boring now that I've tried my hand at sounding "mysterious" and want to get on with the show!). As always, I don't own SDK or anything else mentioned in this story that was created by someone else (there are other things like movies and songs later whose creation I also have nothing to do with...).

Please read and respond!

Chapter Thirteen

Saya awoke early the next morning. She was sleeping next to the window, with her back to it, so she could curl up behind Mahiro, who in turn was curled up next to Hotaro, who was spread eagle on the fairly large bed.

It took awhile for her to become fully aware of where she was, but she remembered last night well; indeed, the throbbing in her head hardly let her think of anything else. But the pain didn't bother her that much; she would adjust as she woke up more; this wasn't the first time to be self-absorbed after all. She rolled slightly more to her left, so she was more on her back, and attempted to look out the window through the slits of the blinds. The sun was probably done rising but was still low, because the light was blinding coming through the gaps between the blinds, making it impossible to see anything. Saya rolled back onto her side and nudged her face down into the pillow. It smelled strange, she thought, and then realized, feeling silly, that it was Kyo's bed after all, so it was probably his scent, though she wasn't sure what exactly he smelled like. She looked over Mahiro, lifting her head slightly, to see Kyo sitting in the soft blue chair. His slouch indicated that he was probably sleeping lightly. As her eyes adjusted to the darkness of the room after looking out through the window, she realized his eyes were closed. She had never seen him without sunglasses before. He was far more handsome that she had first thought. Though his profile was quite sharp and angular, his features were softer when viewed from straight on. She wondered vaguely with her mind still in just-woken-up mode what he would look like with his eyes open. She knew he wasn't blind; she could tell from his reactions to things, even with his sunglasses on in the dark, that he had at least fair vision. She figured his eyes were dark, to match his hair.

It was then, while she was pondering about the stranger sitting across the room from her, who was still lost in his subconscious, that Hotaro began to move a little. He must be close to waking up, Saya thought. She slowly got up to try to prevent the bed from both shaking and squeaking so that the others could sleep just a little longer. She looked over the room once more before slowly unlocking the door, and, walking into the hall, shut it again behind her before moving down stairs into the kitchen.

She found a sleeping Ichiro seated at the kitchen table, bent over with his head down on the hard surface, as she made her way down stairs. There was a shot-gun on the table as well, and Ichiro still had his right hand laying on it, as if ready at any moment to jump up and defend himself. Or Saya, Mahiro, and Hotaro, more truthfully. Saya wondered if Kyo would have defended them if it had come to that. She immediately felt guilty about that thought. She was grateful to Ichiro; she didn't even deserve his support. To desire another man's allegiance was just too much to ask for, especially when there was no reason for him to give it to her. But he had helped treat her wounds last night, and she wanted to thank him for that, so she set about the kitchen, intending to make breakfast. She decided chocolate chip pancakes were in order; Hotaro would love that, and so would Mahiro, though she would never admit to liking something so 'childish.'

'It's only Thursday,' thought Saya. 'Mahiro and Hotaro should go to school, but they have no clothes.' While Mahiro had been quick enough to grab her backpack before they bolted last night, none had thought to grab spare clothes or any other belongings. Getting out was what had mattered most. As she started to make breakfast though, her thoughts drifted towards her wounds, which led her back to the man who had cared for them. She had never been touched by a man younger than either Kensuke or Ichiro, so she had been fairly nervous when he started treating her, on top of being in pain. The nervousness, pain and fear all added up to make Saya feel very sick to her stomach, but she had kept from throwing up. Thank God.

She had been surprised to feel how soft Kyo's touch was, despite the roughness of his calloused hands. She was even more amazed that the boy had a thorough knowledge of apparently both engines and medicine; or at least enough to stitch up wounds well, which, in her opinion, was quite a bit.

Memories of being tormented at school began to come back. She obviously never fit in; never talking to anyone would do that for a person's social life. She wasn't sure herself where it came from, her lack of willingness to trust or share. She thought some of it must have steamed from her parents death as a young child, and the sharp contrast between their tender love and care of her, despite her quietness, and her uncle's inability to tolerate any behavior from any child, even especially bright, kind, good mannered ones. Her sister, Sakura, had been six years older, and while she attempted to protect the girl in both school and at home, the age difference meant the two spent much time apart. Sakura couldn't stand their uncle either, and became pregnant at 16 with Mahiro, allowing her to marry her current sweetheart and move into his family's home in town. Sakura tried to get her to move with them, but Saya knew the family was just offering as a favor; no one in town particularly liked her, except for Ichiro, who wasn't actually from the town. Ichiro had settled there a few years before apparently, and had meant to move on through, working his way west, setting up good businesses and then selling them for a lot more than it took to start them, but the war ended his travels. Saya figured he was always a little bitter that he had been stuck in this town of all places, but that didn't matter so much anymore. What had happened, happened; it was over now.

She heard a noise come from behind her. She turned to see Ichiro leaning back in the chair, stretching out to relieve some of the tension from falling asleep in such a strange position. He must have been quite stiff. He wasn't exactly young anymore.

"You ok?" he asked Saya as he stared at her from his seat, done stretching. She nodded.

"Kyo fix you up well?"

"Yes." Then she added a moment later, "did you know he could stitch wounds?"

"No, I didn't. He must have more uses than we originally thought." Saya thought Ichiro sounded like he was talked about the various attributes of a toaster or microwave, rather than a human. "Are you making breakfast?"

"Yes."

"Good. After that Kyo and I will go see Kensuke and get your belongings. You and Mahiro and Hotaro are going to stay here from now on. Make sure the three of you get to Mrs. Aizawa's before we leave. I don't think Kensuke will dare to enter other people's homes just to go after you."

Saya didn't know what to say. She knew the trouble Ichiro was bringing on himself, but she was glad he was doing it.

"Thank you, Ichiro." She said with all the feeling she could muster in her voice while still sounding sincere. Ichiro understood.

"No need to thank me, just let me sleep for a while longer before I have something to eat, I didn't get much sleep last night." Ichiro finished his comment with a tone that suggested he had merely been unable to fall asleep, instead of barricading himself in his own kitchen to intercept a dangerous intruder. He stalked up the stairs, hunched over. Saya figured his back must hurt from sleeping bent over the table. It would probably bother him all day.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter Fourteen

Kyo woke up easily. He was used to dramatic situations, and could function well with little sleep and lots of tension in the atmosphere. He was leaning back in the blue chair, his face tilted up slightly towards the ceiling. He opened his eyes with a few blinks, but not many, took a deep breath, and then looked over to the bed. He saw Hotaro spread out on his back and Mahiro curled up on her side facing him, but there was no Saya. Kyo looked at the bathroom door, but it was open and the light was off. He got up, grabbing his sunglasses from the card table, and looked at the door; the locks were undone.

As he made his way downstairs, sunglasses in place, he heard cooking noises coming from the kitchen. As he moved downwards, feet appeared, covered by the hems of pajama pants that were far too long for the wearer. The ceiling then pulled up slowly, as he moved further down the stairs, to reveal the rest of Saya.

Kyo had slept in his clothes, so he stepped out into the kitchen with his hands in his jean pockets, staring blankly at Saya who was stirring a thick substance in a large bowl. She turned to see him and gave a frail smile, quickly looking down and away. Kyo was surprised, shown by the slight widening of his eyes, but Saya didn't see it.

"Pancakes." Kyo waited for an explanation, but that was it. He figured he wasn't going to get one, so he looked out the window at the dirt back yard.

"It would make a nice garden," he heard quietly. He didn't look at Saya, thinking maybe the trick was to pretend not to hear.

"Why don't you plant one, its not that late in the season." Kyo heard Ichiro behind him, and was somewhat relieved that the man was alright. At least alright enough to talk about would-be gardens. "We'll go to Kuro's later and get some seeds." Ichiro went to the table and sat down, not saying anything more. Kyo continued to stand. That is until he heard screaming, fast moving steps, and felt a small body come crashing into the backs of his knees. Kyo's legs were strong enough that instead of them buckling, the little body bounced right off, its momentum deflected back onto the stairs, which was quite a lot, since Hotaro had basically half run, half fallen down the stairs in a haphazard fashion. Hotaro sat on the ground staring up at Kyo as the man turned around to glare at the child. Hotaro began to smile.

'Yeah, definitely NOT a brain surgeon,' Kyo thought as he smirked off his glare, and turned to walk to the table, figuring Mahiro had a likely chance of ending up in a pile as well if someone didn't move. And he didn't think Hotaro had the foresight to do anything but sit there, giggling wildly, thrilled with his sudden stop. 'Jesus Christ.' Kyo shook his head.

"Saya, what kind of pancakes are you making?" Mahiro asked calmly from the bottom of the stairs, rubbing her eyes. Even Kyo had to admit she looked very much the part of an adorable little girl, standing there in her lacey slip, sleep still hanging about her every expression.

"Chocolate chip," Saya responded as if she had said it to herself.

"My favorite!" Mahiro exclaimed. Hotaro wildly laughed again. Lifting an eyebrow, Kyo wondered if there was something seriously wrong with the child.

"Are we going home today?" Mahiro asked quietly, knowing that it was a grave and serious question, and apparently nervous about its answer.

"You're staying here." Ichiro had answered for Saya, but Kyo noticed she hadn't even flinched; the two must have spoken earlier.

"Really?" Mahiro asked, obviously pleased.

"Yes. I'm going to collect your things later."

"Can you make sure to bring my teddy bear, and my slippers. I would like my crayons as well. And don't forget, some of my books are in the living…"

"Don't worry, I'll get it all."

Everyone seemed a little relieved. Ichiro would have some company from now on, Saya and the children would live a better life, and Kyo… he still meant to leave later on that day. He had to get moving now that his bike was finished.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter Fifteen

As Kyo and Ichiro stepped out of the large, old truck, Kyo was immediately set off guard by the apparent innocence of Kensuke's house. It looked like the ideal farmhouse. He was damn surprised there weren't butterflies, rainbows and flowers singing everywhere. He was suddenly interested in meeting the twisted man who kept such an immaculate appearance, yet could be so cruel. Well, maybe he didn't have a right to declare him cruel, yet.

Ichiro walked in front. An older man, about the same age as Ichiro, stepped out of the house's screen door. It was late spring, and the heat wasn't that intense yet, so many people left doors and windows open most of the day. From the way Ichiro stiffened, Kyo deduced that this must be Kensuke. He wasn't that daunting. Kyo figured he could take him easy; however, had he been Saya, he could understand how she could fear such a man. He did not look friendly, he didn't even look tolerant. Kyo had a feeling this wasn't going to go well.

"We've come for their things, they're going to stay with me for the time being." Kyo had to concede that it was a good thing Ichiro didn't make the statement sound too final; had Ichiro said "from now on" and made it seem like Kensuke could have no contact with his family, it probably would have pissed him off further. Still, that didn't help them now.

"And why is that?"

"We saw Saya last night, and she's not in very good shape. She should be closer to town, in case she needs to see Shiina." Kyo had figured Shiina was the town doctor; however, he had never met the man himself, since he had enough medical knowledge to perform the stitches himself. "Plus, it's a shorter distance for the children to walk to school and they can play with the neighbor's kids in the evenings."

"Walking home is goood for them, they need the exercise, children are too lazy and stubborn these days."

"They have P.E. in school, and playing at their age is basically running around and screaming, so they get enough exercise." Ichiro smiled at his description of children's play. Kyo couldn't argue; after meeting Hotaro, he would assume some children (coughHotarocough) even hit their heads against walls for fun.

"And what am I to do without Saya? It's only me here, and I work all day in the fields, you think I can keep this house and make meals and keep the farm going? This place feeds a lot of that God damn town, you know, it even supports your own lazy ass! I took that girl in, and her sister, and look what that whore did! She left me with another two brats that couldn't pull their own weight! After raising all of them, you think they could at least help out now that they can be productive for Christ sake!" So this is what it really came down to. Saya was free labor. Because he had taken her in all those years ago, she owed him something. By which Kensuke meant her life.

'Why don't you just invest in a punching bag,' Kyo retorted in his head. Kensuke had just about heard enough.

"I'm not looking to start a fight, Kensuke. I'm simply here to tell you that I am fully willing to take all of them off of your hands. I will be one-hundred percent responsible for their well-being; I don't expect you to help support them in the least. I don't expect you to be grateful, but they themselves have expressed a desire to remain in town, and wish to have their belongings…"

"Which belong to me! Who do you think paid for all their things!"

'Saya's flesh and blood, undoubtedly.' Kyo folded his arms across his chest and glared at the old man through his sunglasses, which reduced the effect.

"Kensuke, please. Just let us take a couple days worth of clothes, the children's school supplies, and some toys. That is all we ask." Kensuke wasn't happy with Ichiro's request at all. In fact, he was infuriated. But Kyo knew the man was not dumb; the wheels were working in his head. It was obvious the fight was not over; Kensuke would have his revenge. But now was not the time, and all three of them knew it. Kensuke stepped aside, allowing Kyo and Ichiro to enter the house. He headed out to his fields, not desiring to see any trace of his treacherous relatives.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter Sixteen

Ichiro entered the house first, holding the screen door open for Kyo, who was right behind him. The house was dark and cool. The door opened up into the kitchen, which faced the east, so no afternoon sun permeated the room. Kyo was tempted to remove his sunglasses, but refrained because he was sure it wasn't dark enough to do so without Ichiro seeing the color of his eyes. Ichiro hadn't asked any questions yet, and it would be best for him to not start now.

The kitchen was just an alcove of a large living room that contained an open fireplace on the other side of the house from where they were currently standing. It was well kept, clean and tidy. There were a few rooms downstairs, and Kyo could see another screen door across the living room that opened onto another outdoor deck on the other side of the grandiose farmhouse, but Ichiro led him up a flight of stairs instead. At the top of the stairs, they turned to the right and were confronted with a long hallway filled with doors on the left, and a railing on the right. Kyo hadn't noticed when they walked in, but the second story hall overlooked the entire living room, with only a railing keeping anyone from crashing down from the corridor into the sofa. Kyo wondered how Hotaro was still alive.

"Go into the last room, it's Saya's. I have to do Mahiro's room, she left me quite specific instructions."

Kyo did as he was told. As he opened the door, he was greeted with a pleasant smell; he noticed that the bedside table next the twin sized bed had a withering bouquet of flowers in it. The room was as clean as the rest of the house, but was wonderfully bright. The windows that faced the west were open to let in the evening sun. Right now, the rays fell at a sharp angle through the window, not too far from the wall. Kyo could imagine what the room would look like with the slanting, slow moving light of evening. He walked towards the closet.

Inside he found a fairly large suitcase, which he placed on the bed and unzipped, folding its top back, revealing its empty bowels. He turned back to the closet and took an armful of dresses, and laid them in the suitcase. He opened the dresser, which was quite small, and unemotionally took out bras and underwear and other garments and put them all in the suitcase indiscriminately as well. He also found a pairs of pants in the dresser, and was mildly amused, since he couldn't picture the waifish woman-child in anything other than silly, impractical dresses. It seemed to suit her quiet, weak nature. Those, too, he placed in the suitcase. When he was finished with clothes and had secured two more pairs of shoes, he began to go through other drawers, but found nothing. Then he came to an old shoebox. Inside were pictures, old jewelry, and other small trinkets. He didn't bother to sift through; he took the entire box and the suitcase, which wasn't even full, and went to the car.

Ichiro had loaded practically the whole damned cab of the truck with stuffed animals. Kyo had never seen anything so ridiculous in his entire life. Because they were so lightweight, Ichiro had taken many of them, and the cab appeared to be overflowing, or even exploding, with the plush creatures. Kyo really wouldn't have cared if it weren't for the nagging thought that there was no room for either he or Ichiro to actually drive the damn thing back. And he felt that the shoebox should stay in the cab as well. As Ichiro walked out of the house with two more suitcases, these being the children's, as was evident by the use of bright primary colors for decoration as well as their small stature, Kyo gave a glare that just read 'what the hell?'

After another half an hour of rearranging, and then another check to see if anything important still remained (when Ichiro had brought up the bathroom, Kyo looked at him like he was crazy, again, but Ichiro assured him women treasured things in bathrooms, so they took another fifteen minutes to scour the bathroom for brushes, hair ties, clips and shampoo, not to mention toothbrushes), they left, with everything Ichiro thought the three would ever desire from their previous home.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter Seventeen

Kyo leaned against the side of the house as he sat smoking a cigarette. It had been quite a while since he last had one; they're bad for you, don'tcha know? But Ichiro had given him the day off from working in the garage. He figured it was more because Ichiro was worn out from all the tension in the past few days; no one was sure that Kensuke wouldn't come after Saya and the kids. But so far, everything was quiet. Saya and the kids had moved into the room next to Kyo's, which was larger; it too held a queen sized bed, which Mahiro and Hotaro slept in, and Kyo and Ichiro (but mostly Kyo, since Ichiro was still sore from falling asleep sitting at the kitchen table) had moved a twin sized bed into the room for Saya. Eventually the kids would need their own beds, probably their own rooms, but for now, everyone was content to sleep together, especially with Kensuke as infuriated as everyone knew he was. Hopefully, if he did try to get inside at night, he would probably go into Kyo's room first, since it was the first bedroom one came to. But the sleeping arrangement didn't matter that much; no matter what it would have been, the house would still be the noisy, messy, insane asylum/zoo that it was now with Hotaro living there. That kid needed an electric collar or something…

Kyo had meant to leave days ago, but he hadn't. He wasn't even sure why. He knew for his own good he needed to get going; hell, for the good of others he should get the hell out of there, if he was in the mood to have an altruistic motive (though, come on, whose altruism doesn't have some selfish basis?). He hated to admit it, but perhaps for the first time in his life, or at least in a long while, he was developing obligations, and just because you become aware of your personal obligations doesn't make you any less obligated to fulfill your obligations, if you catch my drift. There was something about Saya and Ichiro, he couldn't leave them on their own. Yet.

He was pondering his own stupidity, taking another drag as he sat leaning against the house. It was early afternoon as he sat in the shade of the eves and stared into the street completely devoid of life. Saya was in the back, working in the garden. Every once in a while he could hear her move a wheelbarrow or shovel some dirt, turn on a hose. He didn't feel obligated to help, but he liked to listen. He had been sitting a while when he saw Mahiro approach from town. School must have gotten out. He exhaled the smoke through his nostrils as he glared at her coming up the driveway. Something didn't seem right. Her hair was disheveled. He watched her walk up through his sunglasses, waiting for her to speak first.

"Kyo, I know you don't like to be bothered, but I need some advice." Kyo took another drag and stared at Mahiro. She sat next to him, cross-legged, looking down at her lap. "Its that Yuki Mimura. He keeps picking on me. I don't think he likes me, what he says hurts too much. I try to ignore him, and he just makes fun of me for being mute. I yell at him and he just laughs and yells louder. Today I tried to hit him and the teacher got angry and gave me a lecture, but Yuki still pushed me after school and pulled my hair." Well, that explained her deformed pigtails.

"You're strong enough, kick him in the shins." He would have mentioned a more vulnerable area, but the girl _was_ only ten. And he didn't feel like hearing any of that little-girl "ewwww, grossss!" nonsense right now. It was his day off after all.

"He'll just dodge. His dad teaches him how to fight."

"And you think you couldn't learn?"

"Ichiro won't teach me, and Saya doesn't believe in violence."

'Figures,' Kyo thought. 'The one person who should be able to defend herself finds it morally repugnant.' A moment passed by…

"Get up." Kyo stood up himself, tossing his cigarette to the side. Mahiro looked up at Kyo and stood, following his example.

"Stand like this." Kyo took a typical karate/self defense position, Mahiro mimicked. "Yeah, now try this." Kyo used his right hand, and, rotating his hips and tossing his shoulders around, he threw a strong palm heal. Mahiro mimicked. The lesson continued on for a good while, Kyo saying little, but showing Mahiro what to do. He had to admit, she was quick. Nothing like her little brother. 'Maybe they have different fathers or something…' She was also a lot stronger than he gave her credit for. He finally conceded that he liked her. As he watched her form, and the spirit with which she practiced, he knew she would be just fine.

-

Saya stood in the side yard. She had heard Mahiro come home, and when she heard Kyo begin to talk, she had become curious. Watching him teach Mahiro to defend herself from behind the corner of the garage, Saya felt a happiness she had not felt in a long while. She knew she could never teach Mahiro such things; she herself was not wise in the more base and yet basic aspects of life, but here was a man who, despite a harden façade, seemed to be knowledgeable and genuine. And it didn't hurt that he knew how to fight.


	18. Chapter 18

The song mentioned in this chapter is a real song. It is "More Than This" by Roxy Music. Sorry to all of you who hate 80's music! I also don't own the rights to it.

Chapter Eighteen

The next day was back to normal. Kyo worked in the garage while Ichiro went around to the houses. Kyo could hear a boom box from the backyard where Saya was working in the garden again today. It was rare for Kyo to hear music, but he thought it was nice, despite the fact that most men would have been bored to tears with the mellow, "girly" music Saya was currently playing. It fit the day, and it fit Saya.

A light breeze began to move through the garage, circulating the song with it. The man's voice was high, and it was difficult to make out the words through his intonation, but some lines came through to Kyo in the garage.

"_It was fun for awhile, there was no way of knowing, like a dream in the night, who can say where we're going, no care in the world, maybe I'm learning, why the sea on the tide, has no way of turning, more than this, there is nothing_…"

"Excuse me, Kyo-san." Kyo was slightly startled, having been preoccupied with his thoughts and a wrench, and as he looked up from the floor (more working under cars! No wonder Ichiro wanted him to help out, a man that old couldn't be expected to be so flexible!) he saw Mrs. Aizawa. "I'm assuming Ichiro isn't here right now, is he?"

"No." Kyo answered very flatly.

"Could you come over quickly then, I think there's something wrong with the dryer." Kyo was surprised that she had asked him, and on top of it, trusted him in her home, alone, with no other men around. Ichiro must have a lot of sway in this town for him to be trusted this much.

"Yeah."

-

Entering the Aizawa household was like walking into a battlegound; Kyo could hear a heavy and deep bouncing sound. Actually, he took that back, it sounded a little like two people were having a little too much fun on a bed with a poor frame. Too bad it was actually the dryer, forcibly moving around the laundry room. Kyo was impressed with the catastrophe.

"Has it ever done this before?"

"Nope."

'Here we go,' was Kyo's only thought before trying to tackle the machine.

-

Knowing our hero, for lack of a better term, its no surprise who won the mechanical laundry rodeo, but that doesn't mean it was easy. Kyo was exhausted, but smelled nicely of fresh laundry with a hint of something that the box described as "mountain lily scent."

'Yay, I'm a walking air freshener.' Never exactly an aspiration of his, he could have been a lot worse things. Besides, if one thought that was bad, he should go and see the dryer; it undoubtedly still laid on its side, in pieces. In the end, Kyo's advice was to get another.

He crossed the street back to the garage, slightly dazed from his encounter with the deadly appliance. Ichiro was sitting on a stool in the garage, working on something at a work bench, but had taken a break to watch the youth as he walked towards him. The closer Kyo came, the more ragged he looked; Ichiro could tell some bruises were forming on his forearms and his hair looked disheveled, but still oddly attractive. Yeah, he was that cool. He shirt was also ripped in a few places. Well, Saya could fix that.

"What happened?"

"Don't ask."

Just then, Mahiro decided to pop up in the distance, making her way down the sidewalk. Her shirt sleeve was practically torn off, one of her pigtails was missing, leaving her with only one, strangely deformed one and half a head of flowing brown hair, and her socks were falling down at two different heights on her shins, but the winning feature was the huge black eye that was stating to form, competing with the already swollen, bleeding lower lip. Kyo had never seen the girl look so happy.

When she came in earshot, Kyo was the first to respond, looking smug with his arms crossed over his chest.

"Well, I guess you kicked him in the shins."


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter Nineteen

Apparently if one thought Mahiro looked bad, they didn't even want to _hear_ a description of Yuki Mimura. As Saya wet a towel in the kitchen to dab some blood from Mahiro's lip, Ichiro leaned against one of the kitchen counters, and Kyo stood against the wall next to the door into the laundry room. Mahiro sat just in front of him at the kitchen table, beaming with pride.

"He started it!" Mahiro pled. "He kept making fun of me and Hotaro and yesterday he even pulled my hair! I won't tolerate it! He has no right to touch me!" Kyo was proud of the girl, in his own way; she was a fighter.

"I don't think he deserved to loose teeth over it!"

"Oh please, that was a baby tooth!" Mahiro saw from Ichiro's reaction that having this argument with him was not going to win any friends right now, well, except maybe Kyo, who inwardly smiled at that comment, but there was no way in hell he was going to partake in this conversation. He was there merely to watch the verbal carnage, and perhaps salvage his own dignity if he was blamed for the whole incident. Ichiro continued on…

"Why do you think it was ok to fight back? Was he really hurting or threatening you? Was he?

"No, I suppose not…"

"I would think you of all people would know the difference between idle threats and true danger."

Kyo thought that hit below the belt. Sure, the girl had grown up in a violent home, but how would that help her to understand the difference between real and false threats. Kyo understood that a situation like that leads only to fear, whether it has a foundation in reality or not.

"I do not approve of the decision that Mahiro made today, personally, but I see no fault in her actions. She was defending herself from something that she has made clear she does not like and will not tolerate." Saya said softly but forcibly from the sink, her back turned to her audience. It was more words than Kyo had her utter in the entire time he had known her all combined. And perhaps multiplied by two as well…

"You should apologize, but shall not be punished." Mahiro faintly smiled. Kyo was secretly glad he wasn't going to be dragged into this.

"Let me see that," Ichiro said as he crossed the short distance between he and Mahiro and took her chin in his hand to look at the black eye. "You'll have to ice it, but you're still gonna have a shiner." Kyo was certain she'd wear it like a badge of honor tomorrow at school.


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter Twenty

The day had ended smoothly, with a kind of victory for Mahrio. No one said anymore on the subject; dinner was made, Mahiro did her homework, Hotaro ran around screaming to protest a bath, then ran around screaming to protest dressing afterwards. Kyo had decided that it was time to think about leaving again seriously.

After dinner and, more importantly, the screaming, had ended, Kyo walked into the closet in his room and pulled down from the top shelf his black duffel bag. He had placed it up there to avoid having people go through it; he didn't want the kids to get hurt on his account.

He unzipped the top, and removed his medical kit. Below were a sweatshirt and a windbreaker that he had brought just in case it was cold at night; he certainly didn't need it now at the beginning of the summer season. Those, too, he placed aside on his bed. The remaining contents caused him to look up and check the room before he inspected them. The he plunged his hand slowly into the bag only for it to emerge holding a smaller black case. As he opened that as well, he was greeted with the familiar sight of light glinting off of cold, black painted steel. He picked the pistol up, inspecting it, then checking the silencer and his remaining count of bullets. Everything was as he expected, since he had not touched the case since he set out. He put it all away, and was content to let the second longer and skinnier case remain untouched in his bag. No point in bringing out his sniper riffle; if someone walked in while he was inspecting that he wasn't sure he could explain it.

Content, he sighed out loud and placed everything back into the bag, including the pairs of clean jeans and t-shirts he had just washed. He would rest for a few hours; by then Saya and the kids would be asleep. Then, he would inform Ichiro he was leaving, and take only enough food to get by. Ichiro had already filled up his tank for him.

Kyo sat on the bed, figuring he would sleep three hours. It was then that Mahiro walked in. Kyo, sitting hunched over on the edge of the bed, silhouetted by the bedside table's lamp light, turned his face to look at her through the dark lenses of his sunglasses. His expression completely emotionless, it un-nerved Mahiro, but she had come with a purpose.

"Every year, we have a beginning-of-the-summer celebration in town. It is something like a fair, but since the war, it hasn't been that exciting. But we still have a dance." Kyo didn't like where this was headed, but watched the girl as she stood in the doorway with her hand still on the door knob, wearing a long white nightgown. "Ichiro was going to take us and I was wondering if you wanted to come too." Kyo sighed, and looked forward to the other side of the room, expression still vacant.

"When's this dance?"

"Friday."

'Shit, I've been here a week,' was Kyo's thought, pushing him further to declare that he was leaving that night.

"We'll see." He left it like he was playing hard to get; he couldn't explain he was leaving, mostly because he didn't want to deal with complaining and crying, but he also knew that she would ask where he was going, and he could not afford to answer that question. Not that he really had a concrete answer. Mahiro smiled, thinking she had won another battle. She turned around and closed the door quietly behind her. Kyo could hear her footsteps as she went back to her room. He looked down at his hands now folded in his lap, and saw the huge burn mark inside his left forearm. 'I can't stay anymore…'


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter Twenty-One

As Kyo slept, he dreamed, for the first time in a very long while. He dreamed not of pleasant things, but instead of needles, of gutted sky scraper skeletons, of the smell of rotting flesh. He awoke, surprised not to see the objects from his dream, but instead the window, whose blinds left steams of light running across the bed and himself. He got up and grabbed his duffle, on top of which he had laid his leather jacket, and his helmet from the card table and headed to the kitchen. He couldn't bring himself to say anything to Ichiro. He expected that if he tried, Ichiro would convince him to stay.

Kyo walked into the garage, and put his duffle onto the back of his bike, which he then led outside, avoiding opening the door electronically which would probably wake up the entire house, and probably some neighbors. He viewed the street for the first time without sunglasses or motorcycle visor, and then turned to look back up at the house. As he scanned it over, he could see Saya sitting in the window of her and the kids room, looking down at him. She didn't gesture, or attempt to yell out though she could have opened the window. They just stared at each other a moment. He then turned back to face the street, put on his helmet and got on the bike, which he started quickly to try to keep someone from running after him. He took off into the night down the road he should have just kept traveling down in the first place.

'This place will be the end of me,' he thought as his red taillights hung streaming in the air behind him.


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter Twenty-Two

Saya was making breakfast the next morning in hopes that the kids would be excited enough about the food to lessen their disappointment about Kyo. She didn't even want to think he was gone. She had finally begun to acclimate to his presence, and he left. She wouldn't admit it, but she was also attracted to him.

And what wasn't there to be attracted to? He was tall, practically a foot taller than her, and thin, with well toned muscles whose slender appearance didn't let on their true strength. His dark hair was always messy, without a part or any real style at all, but it suited the man, like a dark mane to frame his sullen expressions; a black halo, to offset his features from the background. And despite all his good looks, it was his silence that she enjoyed. True, she knew nothing about him, but he did not make her feel uncomfortable about her lack of conversational skills. She felt that she could spend hours with him in silence and never feel the same awkwardness she felt in the first few moments of being asked her name for this first time by a stranger. And he was gentle. She had not forgotten his touch as he sewed her stitches. They had been removed by Dr. Shiina, who also had touched her with the same intent and in the same manner, but she had not felt the same at all. She had never known a boy her own age, and she had feared she was too old now to find anyone.

She had been envious of her sister's lover as a child. Shuichi had been kind to Sakura; he had married her and given her two beautiful babies. Many in the town thought it would end badly, but they had been happy together for several years. They had even died together. Who could ask for anything more from a lover? Saya had never once been upset with Sakura for leaving her Mahiro and Hotaro; frustrated, yes, especially when Hotaro was a toddler, for, believe it or not, he had actually gotten better over the years. But Saya felt that she was able to have a family with them, and it made her happy to see Sakura in her niece and nephew. Still, she had wished she could have someone of her own.

Seeing Kyo leave last night had not surprised her. Ichiro had told her of the deal they had made, so she knew he would depart soon, but every part of her knew she wasn't the only one who wished he would stay. She knew Mahiro had asked him to the traditional dance festival in a somewhat round-a-bout way last night (Mahiro had meant to ask him to with her as if he were her date, but instead she merely extended Ichiro's invitation), and even Saya had secretly hoped he would have accepted her proposal, but seeing him leave in the night put an end to that. It was strange to see him without sunglasses, he looked much more…

"Good Morning Saya! Making breakfast again today?" Ichiro found her breakfasts to be pleasant surprises since he usually only ate what he made, which was hardly anything edible. He pushed on without waiting for an answer, "Is everyone going to the dance tomorrow night? We'll have to see about kimonos for you and Mahiro." Saya gave him a look that put him a little off-edge. "What's wrong?" Just then, Hotaro started yelling and ran down the stairs with Mahiro stating loudly behind him that if he did that every time he descended the stairs he was bound to increase his chances of dying young by a large margin. Saya returned to making breakfast with a blank expression as morning greetings were exchanged. Then Ichiro mentioned to Mahiro something about finding a good kimono for the ceremony dance the next night.

"Where's Kyo? He's got to get one too! I don't think he brought one with him!" Ichiro could tell that Saya was pained by the question.

"Kyo is…" Saya began to utter the words softly, as if she could somehow soften the blow by speaking even more gently, but she didn't have to finish, as the door to the laundry suddenly opened with Kyo standing in the frame, holding his duffel and helmet, leather jacket and sunglasses on. Saya was the only one relieved, since she was the only one who knew he had gone.

"What were you doing out there, we're gonna eat!" Mahiro said with almost as much excitement as she had shown the day before when she came home from school with her black eye. "Ichiro says we can get kimonos for the dance today!" Saya figured that they must have missed the sound of the motorcycle because of Hotaro's screaming, but why had he returned? Perhaps he had merely gone for a ride? But why had he taken every possession he owned? Saya supposed it didn't matter, explanations could be given later, or, more likely, never at all.


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter Twenty-Three

It had been sometime during the stretch between the edge of town and Kensuke's house that Kyo had remembered the threat that was on Saya and the kids' lives. Ichiro would have to leave her alone to do his job, and if things went badly again no one would be there for her. Plus, he felt bad about the whole dance thing. Inexperienced as he was, he still wasn't as inexperienced as a ten-year-old girl, and thus he had understood that she meant to ask him to the dance. Not that he would dance, but he could at least go and watch and make sure everyone was fine that night, and then leave afterwards while everyone was happy. Maybe it would soften the blow a little. Not that he really thought they would miss him much. Well, Ichiro would probably miss him, at least the labor part. He was glad Saya hadn't approached him to ask him why he had changed his mind, but currently, he had bigger issues to deal with, such as trying to stand still and listen to Mrs. Aizawa's instructions so he didn't get pricked with one of her pins.

Yes, he had caved in and was going to the dance, and the dance meant having to be fitted for a kimono, since he did not own one himself. At least they had let him have one that was entirely black; otherwise, he might have gone back on his agreement to go. Luckily, Mrs. Aizawa's late husband was somewhat close to Kyo's size (albeit a little larger around the middle) so she was altering one of his for Kyo. All in all, it was a fairly awkward position to be in; to have the kimono altered, he could only wear his boxers, which meant standing in front of Mrs. Aizawa and some kids in his underwear and sunglasses. Thank God no one said anything about the strange combination. At least he had company; Mahiro squirmed even more than he did, and she was only sitting on the couch right now. There was also Kazemichi Aizawa, and it wasn't difficult to figure out why he was there.

Kazemichi was Aizawa's eldest boy. He was a year ahead of Mahiro in school, but because there weren't that many children in the area (and Mahiro was exceptionally bright and mature) they were taught together with a few other kids. Apparently he and Mahiro were something akin to friends, though she was currently upset with him for interfering in her battle the day before. He had tried to get the Yuki boy to stop picking on her, and instead had gotten hit himself, and then pushed to the side, all while Mahiro herself was yelling at him to keep his nose out of her business (it probably would have done better to keep his entire face out of the way-he had a black eye to match Mahiro's). He sulked quietly on the couch near Mahiro, but she refused to look at him.

Kazemichi was a good-looking kid, but apparently very soft (he had gotten knocked down with one punch). Perhaps that was why he was drawn to Mahiro; she was undoubtedly the strongest 10 ("almost 11-year-old," as she put it to Kyo earlier that morning) in the area, perhaps in all the world. Kyo's kimono was finished being pinned, now it was Mahiro's turn. She flatly stated that all "males" were to leave if she, a "lady," was to undress. Kyo thought that was a bit harsh; that black eye proved she was hardly a "lady," but he understood her anger at Kazemichi. The boy had almost come between her and her victory. Kazemichi and Kyo filed outside into the backyard, which Kyo had never seen. Kyo waited for Kazemichi to speak, knowing that his sulking was making the poor kid nervous as hell.

"Mahiro's really angry at me."

"No shit kid." Kyo was surprised that Kazemichi didn't even flinch at the swear word; maybe he _was_ a good match for Mahiro. They could be ridiculously mature together.

"I was just trying to protect her." Kyo waited for him to continue. "Yuki is a big guy, and I didn't think Mahiro knew how to defend herself." Kazemichi paused. "But it was great to see him get hit by a girl, repetitively." Kyo smiled, a full, big smile, knowing he had been a part of a kodak moment. "I was thinking I would ask her to the dance, but I don't think she'll say yes now."

"You'll never know unless you try, right?" It was one of the silliest reasons that could be used to validate any stupid action. He couldn't believe he has uttered such a cheesy and pathetic line. But this was hardly of any significance, or consequence. And he was talking to a twelve-year-old, so what did he care?

"You think? Maybe when she's done…"

The two continued to sit outside for a long time, not saying anything. Kyo thought it was strange that the Aizawa's didn't have fences to mark their property lines, but on the other hand, the view stretched on for a ways. Kyo stared at a wall of trees that ran along a creek on the other side of the field from the house. His young companion stared at the ground, sweating bullets. He must have been summoning courage from some deep recess of his soul. He was going to need it now that Mahiro was probably getting used to the idea of using brute force against anyone she was currently upset with. God save Hotaro.

"Let's go Kyo," Mahiro called from the sliding door.

"Mahiro, there's a question I wanted to ask you," Kazemichi blurted out, jumping to his feet and taking a step towards Mahiro. He then lost all nerve having come this far. He looked at the ground, and said with the pain audible in his voice, still sweating bullets, "will you go to the dance with me?" Mahiro lost all traces of anger.

"Sure, pick me up early!" She immediately turned on her heal and walked to the front entrance to go back to Ichiro's. Kyo stood up and followed, passing by a stunned Kazemichi on his way out.


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter Twenty-Four

Due to Mahiro's sudden coyness when it came to all things Kazemich, she refused to go pick up her and Kyo's altered kimonos the next afternoon, leaving Kyo to go by himself to see Mrs. Aizawa and thank her for her efforts. Luckily for Kyo, Mrs. Aizawa thought Kyo was a god in man's form ever since he had tackled her bucking dryer that afternoon.

Having secured the kimonos, and had a descent amount of amusement at Kazemichi's expense (the kid was frantic with worry over his date with Mahiro), Kyo returned to Ichiro's, where Saya and Mahiro were locked away in their room, doing whatever the hell it was girls did. They didn't even let him see them when he delivered Mahiro's kimono. Not that he really wanted to anyway. He was more concerned with Ichiro's well being, since he was currently responsible for Hotaro's well being.

Ichiro had managed to give the little one a bath, but when it came to the whole kimono thing, Hotaro had insisted that wearing only tighty-whities while running around acting like sumo wrestler was good enough. After a good while of chasing him around the house, both Kyo and Ichiro gave up, and while sitting exhausted at the kitchen table with a couple of beers, they reached the notion that it was good enough that he was wearing anything at all. Besides, they still had to shower and change as well.

-

As Saya brushed out Mahiro's hair in order to pull it back into an elaborate up-do, she thought about her own appearance. She knew that she didn't have any one, but she still wanted to look nice. Just in case. Besides, just because no one was looking at her, didn't mean she wasn't looking at any one.

She went into the closet in her room and pulled the shoebox from the top shelf. She had been ecstatic when Kyo had brought it back; she was worried that it would be left in the closet. It contained all the remembrances of her parents and sister that she had in the whole world; well, apart from Mahiro and Hotaro themselves. She took off the top and sifted through the contents. She hadn't thought about the possibilities of Ichiro and Kyo going through her things until they had returned and she felt a strange fear and excitement wash over her as Kyo fixed his gaze on her and walked forward. He was quite close when she realized he was holding the shoebox in his right hand. He must have looked inside and felt some obligation to deliver it into her hands personally. Her train of thoughts then turned to wonder if, since he had gone through her closet, he had been the one to pack her clothes. Now Saya wasn't the kind of girl who had drawers of frilly, lacy, and otherwise exotic looking underwear, but it still sent a thrill of nervous excitement through her to think this man had seen the clothes she kept closest to body. Underwear is truly a ridiculously personal thing after all. It was later when she went through the suitcase he had held in his left hand that she realized he had merely emptied the drawers without much thought of their contents. Saya was relieved, and also slightly…disappointed? Saya found what she was looking for in the bottom of the shoebox. She placed her mother's favorite necklace around her neck, then put the shoebox-and her thoughts of the man who had brought it to her-away.

Mahiro was jumping out of her skin, so Saya was trying to play the elder sister role by helping her get ready. She tried to do all of things she remembered Sakura doing before she went on dates; putting on make up, perfume, picking out the right hair ribbons. She also felt it was a good time to tell Mahiro stories of her mom and dad, what they were like, what they used to do when they went out, how beautiful they both were. Good stories always go well with good times. Soon the conversation turned towards Kazemichi. Saya was happy for Mahiro, and was looking forward to seeing the young couple interact at the dance. It was sure to be an awkwardly amusing situation to watch!


	25. Chapter 25

Chapter Twenty-Five

There's probably nothing shadier than a guy at a festival, surrounded by people, wearing a kimono and sunglasses after the sun has set for the evening. Yet, that was Kyo, as he entered the dancing grounds outside of town with Ichiro that night, and he was getting plenty of friendly glances and waves. It seemed Mrs. Aizawa had been busy telling the entire town about his struggle with her dryer, and now he was infamous.

'Jesus Christ,' was his only thought only the matter.

Saya and Mahiro had waited for Mrs. Aizawa and Kazemichi, so they hadn't showed up yet; in fact, as far Ichiro and Kyo knew, they could have been dead, since they hadn't been seen in several hours.

-

Saya was just finishing dressing herself when they heard a knock at the door. Mahiro made Saya look out the window-she didn't want Kazemichi to see her unless it was in her full glory- and sure enough it was the nervous boy from across the street. Mahiro could have shot off bottle rockets from their bedroom window for all it mattered-Kazemichi was so obviously preoccupied that he wouldn't have a noticed a semi drive right into the wall next to him.

The sun had already sunk behind the trees on the horizon when Saya opened the front door. She stepped out onto the porch holding the door open for Mahiro to walk out. Mahiro, just looked at the ground coyly, glancing up playfully at Kazemichi through her thick eyelashes only as she stepped close to him. Saya swore she thought the boy would melt as he completely forgot he had brought a beautiful purple Iris he had cut from his mother's flower garden. He eventually shoved it forward for Mahiro to take, looking away and blushing. Mahiro took it gently from him, holding it with both hands in front of her like a bride's bouquet. Saya, in general, thought she was going to be sick as she closed the front door and the three of them, joined by Mrs. Aizawa and her little Kentaro, made their way down the street to the festival.


	26. Chapter 26

Chapter Twenty-Six

Kyo was standing not too far from the entrance, leaning against a building, arms crossed over his chest. He looked mildly annoyed, since the reason he came wasn't even there yet. The sun had set and the sky was almost dark. His profile would have been very handsome, had he not looked so strange wearing sunglasses at a time and place like this.

-

As Saya followed their little group into the dance area, she immediately saw Kyo looking displeased. His features were beautiful in their misery, and his hair shone red under the lantern lights as it flowed forward over his forehead, bending slightly up towards the sky instead of falling flat. Saya quickly looked away, and, knowing Mahiro would make a scene once she saw him, quickly moved to the opposite side of the roped off area where there was a table with refreshments and some of the older women were talking. Mrs. Aizawa followed after her, seeing her friends, and the two of them joined a group, Mrs. Aizawa making grand comments about the styles and patterns of everyone's kimonos while Saya merely smiled and looked at the dancers. Mahiro, on the other hand, had gone straight to Kyo, with her forgotten Kazemichi in tow. The littlest of the party, Kentaro, didn't feel sad at being forgotten; he went quickly to the corner where all the boys were having silly contests dealing in all things little boys care about-whatever that may be.

"Kyo, look at my kimono! Isn't it beautiful!" Kyo wanted to express the fact that he had been there when she went to have it altered, and it looked practically the same then as it did now, but he let a smile creep up on his lips when he saw Mahiro and Kazemichi with their matching black eyes from two days ago. They were quite the pair. Mahiro mistook Kyo's smile for a smile of approval and smiled back a smile so wide that any man would have melted at her happiness. Except Kyo, who was immune to such shows of emotion, affection and the like.

"Kazemichi and I are going to go dance," Mahiro said after remembering her Kazemichi, who as sulking behind her. "Would you like to come to?" Kazemichi looked a little wounded at his girl having been so excited about asking another man to dance, but Kyo declined her request more out of a distaste for dancing rather than a favor for the poor boy.

"Well, ok, see you later then!" Mahiro grabbed Kazemichi's hand. His face immediately turning bright red, unable to hide his shock, and the two ran out onto the floor. Kyo stood there silently, in exactly the same manner as he had before the entire incident took place.

As he looked around the yard, he noticed Hotaro running around, still in his underwear, much to the disdain of several of the older housewives, and Ichiro talking with some of the men of the village. Kyo had also noticed some of the young girls were looking at him. That would actually be an understatement; their looks could only be compared to rabid wolves lusting after some piece of meat. Kyo made it top priority to not look at them, but didn't mind the attention, even if he was the equivalent of a sideshow freak at a circus. A rare oddity to be gawked at and probably poked and prodded. Only he was much more handsome.

As he continued to look around, he saw a group of the older housewives talking amongst themselves across the way from where he stood. He could see their excited and overly happy expressions and had no clue what could possibly warrant such shows of joy in such a miserable place. Truly, what did these people have to be happy about? He saw Mrs. Aizawa among them and cursed her for spreading around town that he had helped her "fix" the dryer. Then he smirked at the memory of the face she had when he came out wearing only his boxers and sunglasses while trying on the kimono. He had to admit, she did do a very nice job. It fit him well. But he still felt like a fool. It was meant to show off his chest a little, but it actually revealed down to below the indentation his pectorals made. Luckily, the angle of the sides of the robe when it was folded cut down on the amount of his chest that was actually revealed to the public, but he still felt silly, having worn t-shirts his entire life. And the sandals weren't helping much. His thoughts of how he looked were put on hold when he saw Saya. She already had a kimono, which means he must have packed it for her, but he didn't remember one (honestly, he didn't even pay attention to her underwear, so there was really no way he would have been excited about a kimono). Saya had her hair pulled back into a loose bun, like usual, but Kyo had quietly accepted the fact that he liked the way it framed her face when she wore it like that. Not that she ever wore it differently. Her kimono was plain compared to the other women's, but Kyo had thought the brash reds, pinks, purples were too gaudy; he preferred Saya's white kimono with small blue vertical stripes. The lines ran the length of the kimono, from her shoulders to the hem, broken only by her obi, which was a solid medium blue tone, matching the color of the stripes. As she turned to her side slightly, Kyo noticed how the lines, though they ran straight on the fabric, now bent with Saya's curves as she wore the kimono. No man would have thought she had a terrific body; it was "immature," though small would have been a more appropriate term. But somehow, the lines following her small curves seemed to accentuate their presence; each one created a contour of her body, until all of them together created a representation of her outer form. She looked beautiful. Kyo quickly forgot the thought, though he would have forgotten it anyway, or, more truthfully, pretended it hadn't been there in the first place, when he felt eyes looking on him. They weren't from Saya, he would have noticed; they also weren't from any of the other women she was standing with, though the thought that one of them might have seen him staring caused him to wonder just how long he had been looking at her. No, as Kyo scanned the large, open yard through his sunglasses, he found that the burning gaze belonged to Kensuke, who was not too far off from him. Kyo had not really forgotten about him, but had pushed worries about the man to the back of his mind. He hadn't thought he would show up to the dance; festivals didn't seem like his kind of scene. Kensuke slowly made his way to Kyo, who watched him. Had he not have worn his sunglasses, one could have seen the anger glint in his eyes.

"I see you looking at her," Kensuke announced, quietly so that no one else would hear and the exchange would seem more like a conversation than a threat. "She may not live in my home right now, but I am still her kinsman, and I won't let you harm her."

"Really?" That was all Kyo needed to say, as he lifted an eyebrow and smirked at the man. Kensuke's firey anger showed on his face.

"You had better watch yourself! Just because you all of sudden show up and befriend Ichiro doesn't make you a hero or all-powerful! You still have many enemies here!" And with that, Kensuke stormed off, not waiting to hear a retort. It was unclear whether or not he would have gotten one, since Kyo was filled with mirth for the first time in a long time at the thought of the old man threatening him physically. Kyo almost wanted to see him try. Almost. He knew it wouldn't be much of fight, so he'd rather forgo the experience than be disappointed.


	27. Chapter 27

Chapter Twenty-Seven

The rest of the night went smoothly. Ichiro introduced Kyo to several men from the town, and they spent the night drinking sake and talking, Kyo merely listening. He offered nothing, and they asked nothing from him in return. All in all, he figured they must have assumed that he was no threat now since he hadn't done anything harmful in the two weeks he had been there. Kyo snuck a few more glances at Saya as the night went on, but none were anything to be surprised at in comparison to the first time he had seen her that night.

-

Saya had said hardly anything all night. She stood next to the women and smiled, but mostly watched the dancers. Mahiro and Kazemichi made a good pair, and there was no trouble from the Yuki Mimura boy. Apparently he had learned his lesson, which was good, because Kazemichi would have been embarrassed had Mahiro needed to defend him.

It was late by the time the group gathered to go home. Kazemichi had been brave enough to hold Mahiro's hand, the two trailing the group as they walked home silently. Mahiro still had the flower Kazemichi had given her earlier, which proved to Saya that the girl really did think fondly of Kazemichi despite her earlier antics to get Kyo to try to dance with them. Mahiro liked Kyo, not completely like an older brother, he was far too handsome for that, but more out of some strange attraction that Saya could sense as well. The man was powerful, which demanded respect, and quiet, which demanded intrigue-and of course handsome, which yielded awe. As Saya walked along with Hotaro sleeping in her arms, she lifted her gaze from the road for a moment to steal a glance at Kyo who walked unintentionally beside her. She wondered what he looked like without his sunglasses AND with his eyes open for perhaps the millionth time as she re-glued her eyes to the ground. Her look hadn't escaped Kyo's attention, but he did not react to it. He continued to look ahead at Ichiro's back. In much the same manner as Saya and Kyo, Ichiro walked next to Mrs. Aizawa, who likewise carried little Kentaro, as the group made its way up the middle of the street. There was no traffic, since it was so late at night; not that there would have been any during the day either, but walking down the middle of streets is a activity best suited for the night, when feelings of invincibility and unknown danger are present to make the walker feel impowered. One felt secretive and mysterious in the dark.

When they reached their homes, the group split apart, except for Kazemichi who walked Mahiro to the door. They made plans to go to the creek the next day. This was the first Kyo had heard of anyone going to a creek, but he wasn't really all that interested, as he held the door open for Saya, whose arms were full of Hotaro, and then followed her upstairs, where they entered their respective rooms for the night.


	28. Chapter 28

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Kyo woke up later than usual the next morning, and after showering to remove the smell that had accumulated due to the humid night air, smoke from the bonfire, and sake, dressed and went down stairs to see an upset Mahiro.

"You can't go with Kazemichi alone," said Ichiro.

"Why can't Saya come with me?"

"She has to watch Hotaro, and you already expressed a distaste for bringing Hotaro along."

"Why can't Mrs. Aizawa watch Hotaro with Kentaro?"

"I don't know, but I have a to go out to the fields with Mr. Mimura (Mahiro made of face of disgust at the mention of her nemesis' father's name) to check his tractor, so I can't sit here and argue any more."

Kyo walked into the kitchen at this point, and thought Ichiro was acting like a perfect father figure: annoying and destroying the dreams of young children.

"Kyo, can you come with me and Kazemichi to the creek today? Please?" Kyo thought for a moment, but as soon as all the "pretty-please with sugar on top" nonsense began, quickly gave in. What the hell did he care, he wasn't trying to be a good father figure.

"Yeah, sure."

"Yay! Thanks Kyo!"

"Just let me eat first," Kyo intentionally stated instead of requesting. Mahiro ran out of the kitchen and up to her room, to do God knows what before they went to pick up Kazemichi.

'If someone really wanted to build a tough army, all they would need to do would be to clone Hotaros and Mahiros. No one could stand up to that much screaming and whining. And they definitely have the fighting spirit too.' Well, he assumed Hotaro would, eventually, since Mahiro was tough as nails, and Saya, though a pacifist, was apparently indestructible (she had survived life with Kensuke after all). She had also not cried or complained that night she had come to Ichiro's after receiving a fair beating. Kyo had to admit that there was strength in her resolve.


	29. Chapter 29

Chapter Twenty-Nine

The creek was exactly what it sounded like. A creek. The kids ran along ahead of Kyo on a well-worn path to a sizeable swimming hole that was well shaded. One of the trees even had a rope swing. The water was still fairly cold, but that didn't stop the two from running around and splashing each other, and as the afternoon wore on, it became warm enough to brave the rope swing. Kyo sat in the shade of a tree, leaning against its trunk, sleeping lightly. He figured it really didn't matter if he paid attention to the kids. They were barely old enough to do anything other than maybe have a first kiss, which would undoubtedly be little more than a peck. No, he was not sent as a safeguard of morality; that would have just been ironic, he thought to himself. There was no way in hell they could get lost along that trail, unless they intentionally ran away, but they probably would have done that in the middle of the night if they were going to. Besides, what reason did they have to leave here? He was more likely there to keep the kids safe from undesireables. Yeah, Mahiro could kick the shit out of a twelve-year-old, but a full-grown man was another story. And so, Kyo slept, sure that if one of them was drowning or being attacked, he would hear some screaming or something. Besides, his instincts were pretty damn good if he did say so himself.

-

It was late afternoon as they were returning home, Kyo leading the way, with a look of sheer misery on his face, as the other two brought up the rear making googly eyes at each other and giggling. He thought he would die from the cuteness seeping out of their every pore. As they came up to the street from behind the Aizawa house, Kyo felt a strange sensation when he looked at Ichiro's house.

There was a truck parked in the driveway. The front door was wide open…

"Mahiro, why don't go see Mrs. Aizawa and thank her for your kimono and for letting Kazemichi go to the creek today."

"OK!" Mahiro smiled from ear to ear, only too glad to have an excuse to spend more time with her new boyfriend. Kyo figured wild horses wouldn't even be able to drag her away from him, so he had plenty of time to make sure everything was alright.

-

Kyo walked up to the front door silently, and slipped through trying to make his shadow as small as possible to keep whoever was around from noticing his presence. The sun was setting just as he walked in, so the rays reached almost to the kitchen…he could hear someone in there now.

"Well, what do you have to say? TALK GOD DAMN IT!" A man was yelling. Kyo heard no response; Saya must have been in there alone.

"What, nothing to say?" Kyo heard a large smack as he came to the end of the hall as it opened into the kitchen. Sitting in a heap on the floor, pressed against the cabinets in the bottom of one of the counters was Saya. Her hair had fallen around her face, so Kyo couldn't really tell how hurt she was. Kensuke was standing with his back toward Kyo; the 'smack' sound had probably been caused by a backhand to Saya's face since Kyo had heard nothing indicating she had just now fallen on the ground. And not only was Saya on the floor, but practically the entire contents of the kitchen were as well. Plates, silverware, overturned chairs; it had been a hell of a fight so far from the amount of debris that covered the ground. Kensuke must have sensed Kyo's presence at that moment, because he turned on his heel just then with a surprised look on his face, while Kyo was still gawking at the mess.


	30. Chapter 30

Chapter Thirty

Mrs. Aizawa wasn't a fool, or even as naïve as she let on to others. So when she asked Mahiro where Kyo was when only Kazemichi and she entered through the back sliding door, and Mahiro explained that he had said she should come to pay a visit, Mrs, Aizawa knew something was…off. She couldn't tell what it was exactly, but as she looked out her living room window, and saw Kyo sneak into the already open front door, she knew something was definitely wrong. Then she recognized Kensuke's truck parked awkwardly in the driveway.

"Jesus…" She didn't even finish the swear.

"Why don't you go and play with Hotaro and Kentaro in Kentaro's room. I'm going to go invite Ichiro for dinner. Don't go anywhere and don't open the door for any one while I'm gone. You too, Mahiro, alright? I'll tell Saya and Kyo, too, while I'm out, so don't leave." Mrs. Aizawa had tried to keep the strain out of her voice, but tried to sound forceful enough for them to understand that they needed to obey her, if only for this one time. As she threw off her apron, locked the front door and went out the back, she heard Mahiro comment on how she knew Saya was going to let Hotaro go to play with Kentaro today. Mrs. Aizawa was glad that they hadn't realized something was wrong. She needed them to be calm, because if they grew scared and panicky, she wouldn't be able to get help. She just hoped she wouldn't be too late. She walked briskly through the backyard until she was sure that the side fence took her out of sight from the children inside, then she sprinted as fast as her legs could go.

-

"Well, if it isn't our hero? Have you come here to save her? Well YOU'RE TOO FUCKING LATE!" Kyo suddenly saw Kensuke had a gun in his left hand, which he had pointed at Saya. No wonder the girl was on the floor, in a position of submission.

"And what makes you think I care?" Kyo said coolly, crossing his arms across his chest, smirking. "What makes you think I hadn't planned to take advantage of her weaknesses myself?" Saya looked up at him through her veil of hair. It couldn't be, could it? Did he really not care at all for her? She could understand if he didn't love her, or even like her all that much, but was he really alright with watching this man kill her, and even smile at witnessing the deed as it was done?

"Go ahead, do it. I won't stand in your way." Kyo's face didn't lie, and indeed, had she have seen his eyes, which were mercifully covered by his sunglasses, she would have probably died of despair right then, for they spoke of the thrill of fresh blood being spilt.

Kensuke was obviously shaken by Kyo's convincing lack of anxiety over the girl's fate.

"What, can't do it? Maybe I should do it myself, I bet I could enjoy it much more than you ever could," and with that hint of pleasure in his voice, Kyo moved forward, dropping his arms to his sides. It worked. Kensuke moved the pointed gun from Saya to Kyo, who quickly pushed it out of range with his right arm and threw a strong left cross into the man's face. A shot did go off, but luckily it hit the ceiling and nothing more. The cross hadn't been a knock out punch, but it had put a nice hurt on the man. Hopefully his full anger would now be directed at Kyo, who just stood there, waiting for Kensuke to come at him.

Kensuke reached his hand to his face, feeling his nose, which was most certainly broken, and then charged at Kyo forgetting about the gun, which had fallen out of his hand entirely. He threw a couple of swings, which Kyo easily dodged, but realizing that Kensuke was fairly quick, and he was running out of room to dodge backwards, he knew he needed to take a hit. And he did. It was fairly weak and right after it was thrown from Kensuke's left, Kyo hit the man square in the side of the head with a right hook. He hit him again with a left upper, the spun around and kicked him with his right heel, causing the man to fall back onto the ground. But that wasn't the end.

Kensuke was dazed for a moment, but then remembered the gun and scrambled for it. He picked it up, ready to shoot in his left hand, but Kyo had seen the wheels turning in the man's head and kicked Kensuke's arm so hard, it not only sent the gun flying into a cabinet, but probably broke a bone or two. Kensuke, however, kicked Kyo in his standing leg, causing him to go down. Both men were on the floor now, but Kensuke had the advantage since he began to move as Kyo was still falling. He quickly jumped onto the other man and started hitting him the chest. Kyo understood how Saya had been taken so many times. He was exceptionally strong and a seasoned fighter. Kyo was surprised.

But Kensuke had misjudged his stance on top of Kyo, and the tides were quickly turned as Kyo flipped Kensuke onto his back by thrusting his hips up and to the side; a dirty looking (and feeling!) trick, but it sent the man flying to the side, where Kyo quickly had the upper hand. He did not make Kensuke's mistake as he quickly dispersed his weight across the old man's body, so he would be unable to buck him off. He did not go for the dramatic punching scene, but instead grabbed a nearby carving knife, about eight inches long and damn sharp. Holding it to Kensuke's throat, Kyo announced,

"If you ever touch her again, or any of those children, so help me, I will find you." Then, he lifted his arm into the air and brought it down with all his might---into the linoleum floor. He quickly rejected the act of mercy he had just performed, and with all the strength he could find, he planted on last cross into the left side of Kensuke's face, finally knocking the man out cold. Any harder, and Kyo probably could have snapped his neck. That would have been a lovely end to the situation, but apparently it was not meant to be, for it was just then that Kyo heard a gun being cocked.


	31. Chapter 31

Chapter Thirty-One

Kyo looked up to see Saya sitting with her back against the counter, gun held with both hands and her finger over the trigger. It was then that Kyo remembered how he had been able to anger Kensuke. He suddenly regretted the ploy now that he was at point blank, threatened by the same woman he had risked his life to rescue.

Kyo didn't beg for his life or implore her to lower the gun; he just silently sat up and stared at her, his face expressionless. At her foot he saw a familiar object; his sunglasses must have been knocked off sometime during the fight. His eyes traveled back to Saya, knowing that for the first time, he stared at her with his red eyes, and he suddenly felt naked. There was no way he had escaped the fight unscathed; he could even feel some blood sliding down slowly next to his left eye; maybe his eyebrow had split or something. Sitting on top of a man he had threatened to kill with a knife he had driven into the ground only a foot away, bloody, staring with his crimson eyes at a woman he had openly threatened to rape and kill only moments ago, he realized he had once again he had earned his title. "Demon." That's what he was, what he was made to be. Saya had no look of regret or fear in her eyes as she squeezed the trigger...

He was stunned for a second, expected to feel pain in his gut, or maybe just black out. He thought it was ironic he should be done in by a woman as tame and gentle as Saya, but she had probably snapped and was not in her right mind. There was nothing to be angry at; he probably would have killed her had their situation been switched. But then he realized after some moments that he felt no pain, was still conscious, and Saya had relaxed somewhat, though she still looked fairly hysterical and held the gun in her hands. Kyo saw out of the bottom of his vision red spread out over white linoleum. He looked down. Ichiro's head had a nice, small hole that was spouting red liquid. Kyo looked back to Saya, and slowly put his hands on the floor in from of him, watching her eyes the entire time, though they did not meet his…they only glared wildly at the corpse that now lay on the kitchen floor. Kyo swung his leg over Kensuke, so that he was no longer straddling him. Slowly he crawled on hands and knees forward, not stopping at Saya's feet, but continuing to the left of her so that he was kneeling at her side. She still stared madly at the body, anticipating its revival, the gun still in her hands pointed at him. Kyo held up a hand, all movements cautious, deliberate and measured, and placed it over the gun, softly touching Saya's hands in the process. They felt cold, but Kyo was more surprised at how tense the muscles were; they were so tight he thought they might snap in her hands. He applied a light pressure to try to force them down, not attempting to take the gun, for fear she might turn on him for taking her only assurance of safety from her. She abruptly turned on him, snapping out of her trance, her eyes wide as they tried to assess the danger he posed to her. She turned back to the corpse, and something clicked. She suddenly dropped the gun and turned into Kyo's chest, pulling her legs up to her, and baring her arms to her face to block his vision. He was forced to sit, since the rapidity of her movement had knocked him off of his feet. He felt a shudder, and then another, as he realized she must have been crying. Unsure of what else he could possibly do, he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her closer into his chest until she thought she might suffocate.


	32. Chapter 32

Chapter Thirty-Two

They had found the two of them sitting in almost the same position on the floor some time later. Saya had stopped crying, but that didn't mean anything. She remained curled like a little ball in Kyo's lap, as he attempted to sit in a deformed Indian style, his legs wrapped around her. His arms continued to pull her close, a task made easier by the fact that she had stopped covering her face with her arms, and now loosely held Kyo, too; one of her hands clutched his sleeve, the other, the back of his shirt. His chin lay on the top of her head and they gently rocked back and forth, both staring off into space, saying nothing.

Mr. Mimura was the first to enter the bloodied and cluttered kitchen, followed by Ichiro. The rest of the town's men were practically on their heels.

"Oh my God…" was all Mr. Mimura said as he surveyed the scene. Kyo and Saya turned their faces slightly to look at the group of men rushing through the threshold only to stop, speechless, upon viewing the kitchen. Neither of them changed their expressions or made attempts to explain. It was all fairly obvious anyway. Saya wouldn't be curling up with Kyo if he had been the one to cause the trouble, and it was unlikely her uncle would have been in the vicinity to help even if Kyo had been the one attacking her. Ichiro walked over to the two of them on the floor and squatted down.

"Are you alright?" He asked, lifting a hand to push Saya's hair off of her forehead, looking into her eyes first, then into Kyo's once Saya nodded. Kyo had forgotten his red eyes were easily visible now, and he looked away, trying to avoid eye contact. Ichiro had seen, but he didn't have the time now. "Why don't you take her upstairs, Kyo." Kyo leaned back to look down at the girl in his arms as she pulled back to look at him. She quickly looked away, then tried to stand. Kyo got up first, then pulled her up, trying to avert his eyes, feeling that they must have frightened her just now. He continued to hold onto on one of her arms that he had taken to help her up as he led her up the stairs into his room.

Ichiro, Mr. Mimura, and the others were aghast by the mess. The body would have to be removed, then everything cleaned up. Ichiro noticed the large knife stuck in the floor and was, for the first time, enlightened as to the true strength of his guest. And just the slightest bit frightened.


	33. Chapter 33

Here you are FlowerGirl! More chapters! Sorry it took me a few days (midterms and all-college is a lot of work!), but I figure I upheld my end of the bargain by updating, so now its your turn to follow through and tell everyone about this story!!!

Thanks for the review; I hope you like these chapters! There's much, much more where this came from...so please continue to read!

Chapter Thirty-Three

That night, the body of Kensuke Takahiro was removed from the kitchen floor; the blood was mopped; much of the debris was swept to the side of the kitchen in a pile to be sorted later or, more likely, just tossed out. Mahiro and Hotaro were kept at the Aizawa residence, but they were assured everything was alright, and Ichiro came to see them before they went to bed. Mrs. Aizawa had done well; Ichiro thanked her for her efforts. However, Saya and Kyo were not concerned with this all these events as they sat in Kyo's bathroom, inspecting themselves for wounds.

Saya found herself sitting not on the counter this time, but on the lip of the bathtub. She was fairly covered with blood, and so was Kyo. He had decided the best way for them to rinse off was to turn on the water in the shower, then one of them would use the detachable showerhead to rinse off the blood and grime from the other. This way, the one in charge of the showerhead could also inspect for cuts. The floor had been covered with broken plates, glasses, and knives; there had been more than enough opportunities for both of them to get hurt. Kyo went first, even though he knew it wasn't wise. Saya had more numerous _and_ worse injuries than he did, but he figured if she was going to agree to let him inspect her, she was going to need to feel comfortable.

As he stripped down to his boxers, Saya looked merely at the water pouring into the tub and focused on testing the temperature. However, there appeared next to her a pair of feet, so she pulled her hand away from the steady stream and stood up. Kyo took the showerhead down from the holder and pulled down on the aerator on the waterspout to get the water to come out of the showerhead instead. He then stepped over the lip of the bath tub and handed the showerhead, which was now gently raining warm water, to Saya. It didn't really matter that he looked right at her, since she was still staring at the floor as she took the showerhead. He looked away, turning his back to her, and she looked up to see his body, since she had to see what she was doing.

He had a few small cuts on his back, probably from falling on the ground when Kensuke kicked him in his supporting leg. It didn't help when Kensuke had then gotten on top of him, putting all his weight on him, forcing the shards of ceramic and glass into his skin. She inspected the cuts to make sure there were no remaining pieces of whatever made them embedded in the skin, but was far more intrigued by the numerous other wounds that had already healed. As she looked, she saw them everywhere; most were faint, some were not. Many were long and jagged, but there were even some strange, rounder ones. A few, she could tell, were clearly from accidents like skidding across asphalt. Those were probably obtained while he had been riding on his motorcycle, but the others…

"I know there's nothing that entertaining back there." Kyo's voice brought her to her senses, as he turned around and took the showerhead from her. He bent over a little and rinsed his hair with it, since he had been cut at the top of his forehead and some blood had run into his hair, though most had traveled down his face. After washing fairtly thoroughly, he placed the showerhead on the bottom of the bathtub and took a towel from the toilet seat, first drying his hair then moving on down his body. Saya turned away and began to unbutton her dress as Kyo tied the towel around his waste, removed his wet boxers, and replaced them with dry ones he had brought into the bathroom. He removed the towel and put jeans on before turning to see Saya already standing in the bathtub, rinsing her hair out.


	34. Chapter 34

Chapter Thirty-Four

Kyo had felt bad while looking over Saya's battered body. He knew how many scars he had; he had spent his lifetime earning them. But this…this was something else. Knowing how she had gotten every single one, he understood why Kensuke was dead on the kitchen floor. And he felt not even the slightest amount of pity for him. Saya had no cuts or scrapes, despite the amount of blood that had been on her; just very large bruises. She would hurt like hell tomorrow, and probably be confined to bed. It was amazing she could stand now. After a few moments, Kyo began to feel uncomfortable with the girl shivering in her underwear, so he let her get out and put dry clothes on while he left the bathroom.

When Saya opened the door, he saw her wearing the pajamas Mrs. Aizawa had given him-again. He walked back into the bathroom and had her sit on the counter while he went through and tried his best to figure out if she had broken any bones. She passed all of his tests for joint rotation and movement, and she said nothing hurt-other than where she had been hit he assumed. Kyo then went about putting a bandage on his forehead, Saya continuing to sit on the counter. He wondered if she could get off of it by herself. It was then that Kyo realized once more that he wasn't wearing his sunglasses. Staring at his own reflection for a moment before finishing applying the bandage, he studied the color again. Red. Red like…

There was a knock at the door. Kyo quickly turned to look out of the bathroom, unable to see Saya look, too, but able to feel her tense up. He walked to the bedroom door as she slipped off the counter gently. He felt a hand wrap around the inside of his upper arm. He turned to see Saya look up at him, then pass him by as she went to answer the door. He had to admit, it was clever of her. If it was Ichiro at the door, there would be no problems; but if it was one of the townspeople (Mr. Mimura, perhaps, who had a temper like his son) then they most certainly would be looking for Kyo. After all, a man was dead, and who would believe meek, little Saya killed him? Kyo could hardly believe it himself, but he had seen it with his own eyes. Certainly, if anyone had to guess who the killer was, Kyo would be the most likely choice anywhere on earth. Saya opened the door.

"My dear, are you alright?" It was Mrs. Aizawa. "You look alright, clean and ready for some rest. Is Kyo here?" Mrs. Aizawa had come in and hugged Saya while talking, but had been so preoccupied with inspecting the girl for damage that she hadn't noticed Kyo standing not five feet off. Saya looked in Kyo's direction, and Mrs. Aizawa followed her gaze. "Why don't you get into bed, Saya, I would like a word with Kyo in the hall." Saya looked at Kyo; she knew it was his bed, but Mrs. Aizawa probably didn't. He nodded once, and she turned and walked towards his bed as Mrs. Aizawa led him out into the hall. Once he closed the bedroom door, sneaking a peak at Saya pulling sheets up over her as she lay down, Mrs. Aizawa threw her arms around a very surprised Kyo.


	35. Chapter 35

Chapter Thirty-Five

Mrs. Aizawa, whose first name was actually Juri, had had her doubts about Kyo at first. She was a small town woman, had been born and raised in this farming community. She had known her husband since she was a child; they had met in elementary school, and been together since their early teenage years. When Ichiro moved across the street roughly 10 or so years ago, she had had her doubts about him as well, but after the death of her husband in the war (he had been in a larger, neighboring town and had simply never returned), she had come to rely on him a little at a time. Eventually his friendliness toward her became mutual, and he became a permanent fixture in her life. He was wise in the world, having traveled and lived through all sorts of conditions, experiencing the poorest of the poor even though he came from a well-to-do family, and still managing to survive. It came as no surprise then that Juri should put her faith in his judgment of others from outside her small town, but this man had seemed to be too much.

Then came the night when Saya had been hurt and turned to Ichiro for help. Juri had seen her share of Saya's battle scars, and had even been there to help fix a few when Ichiro decided it was better if a woman tended Saya, for the girl's own modesty. The next morning when she had seen Ichiro look exhausted it hadn't taken her three guesses to figure out what had happened. When Ichiro explained how well Kyo had handled the situation, she was amazed. Apparently, when Ichiro had returned to the house, he had used his skeleton key to unlock Kyo's door and check to see if everyone was alright. When he saw Saya and the two little ones in Kyo's bed and Kyo trying to stand guard, his trust, he felt, had been affirmed.

Juri had decided to test him as well by asking him for assistance with her unruly dryer. He had passed her test and she was glad that she had placed her trust in Ichiro's judgment of character. And then, befriending Mahiro, that precocious wild child, and helping her ineffective young son finally tell Mahiro that he liked her, the man was shaping up to be too good to be true. Not that he didn't have his quirks. But tonight…Juri fully believed that Kyo had rescued Saya, even if it had resulted in Kensuke's death. Her own alliance was to the girl, and she was glad to see the old man finally get a taste of his own medicine. The relief she had felt at hearing that Saya was alright had quickly melted into elation that she would never have to stand by and watch another broken Saya try to pretend that she was fine.

While all this was going on in Juri's head, however, Kyo was still left speechless as she embraced him tightly. Eventually she pulled away, almost crying.

"I just wanted to thank you. I know you sent Mahiro to my house to keep her safe, and then you protected Saya. I don't care what anyone else says, I have seen what he does to that girl, and its been getting worse. Who knows if maybe this time…" She started to actually cry, and instead of finishing, she gave Kyo another large bear hug, which was impressive for a woman her size in comparison to Kyo. But then again, she did raise two boys almost entirely on her own. She slowly pulled away again.

"Thank you." She turned and walked down the stairs, wiping away her tears. Kyo felt very awkward.


	36. Chapter 36

Chapter Thirty-Six

Saya woke up very slowly, her body protesting each moment of waking life, and her mind remaining foggy for quite a while. But she didn't need it to defog to know what had happened; there was only one thing in the world that made her feel like this in the morning. And then she remembered. He was dead. And it was her fault.

Saya didn't know what to think or how to feel, and almost in response, her body curled into a ball as she lay on her side facing the window. She had killed Kensuke. She could claim temporary insanity; most would believe that, the man had almost killed her a few times. However, he was family, and he had never actually attempted to kill her, no matter how angry he was. But last night, when he pulled the gun out and pointed it at her head…and then there was Kyo. Kensuke had threatened to kill her and Kyo had threatened back. Saya had had no clue who was lying and who was telling the truth until she saw how Kensuke had reacted. Kyo had provoked Kensuke to attack him and forget about Saya. After she saw that, she felt a strong instinct to trust her belief that Kyo was lying intentionally to shake up the old man. It was a brilliant strategy, so long as it really was false. But Saya was still alive, wasn't she? There had been enough times when Ichiro was gone when Kyo could have easily carried out his threats, and yet he only responded to her with a mild disinterest. Saya turned to see if Kyo was sitting in his chair. She was infinitely surprised to find him lying on his back on the bed beside her.

He was sleeping lightly, but still sleeping. He didn't look like he was going to wake anytime soon, which meant he had probably stayed awake as late as he possibly could making sure no one would come. She knew that no one besides the two of them knew what had actually happened; as far as the others were concerned, an idiot girl was found with a scary man in the same room as a dead body. She knew it didn't take any sort of education to figure Kyo had murdered Kensuke. Had she not seen the gun lying next to her foot and picked it up, they all could have continued on with their lives, and no one would have said anything. But now…she felt foolish. She should have let Kyo end it.

She didn't realize it until that moment, but she had been staring at Kyo the entire time. He looked peaceful while he was sleeping, but she had learned that most devils do; one only had to know Hotaro to understand that the waking person and the sleeping one are two very different individuals. She had come to like Kyo's profile, and as she stared at it from where she laid at his side, she lifted a hand, and, without even realizing it, starting from the top of his forehead, drew a line with her index finger down his face, outlining it from her perspective. As she drew near his eyes she suddenly remembered what they had looked like as he stared back at her from on top of Kensuke. She had immediately understood why he had kept them covered, they were so unnaturally and frighteningly red. She had not had a clear look at them since, but she thought that if she could see them again, perhaps under different circumstances…She felt a hand grab her wrist, and everything else all happened so fast that it was a complete blur, but she found herself looking up into Kyo's face. He was straddling her, looking into her face with a look not so much of anger or hate, or even fear, but of perfunctory action. It was as if he was not even human, much less a demon, but was a robot, trained to execute this action. She wished she could see his eyes; perhaps they betrayed some emotion, but his hair covered his face enough so that she could not see them…Then she felt the pressure at her throat. He was strangling her…

-

Kyo had abruptly felt that something was not right even while he was asleep. His senses rapidly cleared to realize that someone was touching him. He impulsively carried out the actions that led him to sit on top of Saya, choking her to death. Looking down into her face as she began to choke, he was abruptly shaken into the situation. He recoiled his hand, moved off of Saya, and left the room, not knowing what else to do.

Saya herself was far too shocked to call out after Kyo. It had obviously been a misunderstanding from his reaction, but she didn't understand why. Who woke up to being pleasantly touched by a friend (she certainly wasn't an enemy, so she thought this term fit as good as any other) by attempting to kill them? She figured she shouldn't take it personally; they had only known each other for a short while, she didn't usually sleep with him in his bed and he had been unconscious of the situation. Literally. Who wouldn't have reacted the same way if they woke up in a strange situation, she supposed. She would have run down after him, but, like he had assumed the night before, she was too sore to move, and even if she yelled, she didn't think he would come back.


	37. Chapter 37

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Kyo briskly walked out to the garage, grabbed his helmet, and drove away on his bike. He was trying to suspend all thought until he left the area and was able to think logically without interruption, so he wasn't actually aware of putting on the helmet after he picked it up or starting the engine before driving off into the west.

-

Kyo sat beneath a tree not far off from the road, his bike nearby, helmet down at his side. He had quickly exited the valley and began climbing hills, and after about forty-five minutes or so, he had decided he was cool enough to think, so he found this spot, near the top of a large hill looking down into a small ravine below. What he thought wasn't very good.

He had attempted to strangle the woman he had attempted to help the night before. He had practically followed through on the supposed hollow threat he had made to kill her; sometimes life was a little too ironic. He hadn't really known what was going on at the time, he had just felt in danger. The longer he thought about what it could have been that had set him off, the less his memory could provide. He knew he had easily been able to grab her arm, so it must have been close to him, but what exactly it had been doing was a mystery still.

The sun had steadily moved across the sky as Kyo had sat in meditation, and now it was early afternoon. He really wished he had his sunglasses, since it was too warm to wear his helmet for protection from the sun's bright rays. He truly didn't care about the color of his eyes at the moment.

'I should leave,' was his only persistent thought. It had been, what, two and half weeks now? He was amazed he hadn't been found yet. 'Maybe they've given up? Maybe they're letting me go…maybe they just don't care?' but as much as he wanted to believe these conjectures, he knew they were just hopes. Who would let an investment such as him just pick up and leave. True, he had made it an expensive enterprise, but that wouldn't stop them.

He picked up his helmet and put on his jacket, which he swore at, since it was black leather and this was summer, but it was necessary for riding back. As he put on his helmet with both hands, he felt his thumbs trace the sides of his face, and it sent a familiar sensation through him. He had felt this before, not from putting on his helmet, but from something else more recent. Then he remembered Saya's arm. Had she run her hand down his face?

His journey back was much slower than the trip he had made that morning. What runaway doesn't loathe going back home, having acknowledged defeat? But it wasn't just that. He felt the desire to just keep moving west. The only reason he didn't was because he had foolishly left his duffel in the bathroom.

-

Saya had fallen asleep shortly after Kyo had left. She had heard the motorcycle drive off for the second time, and had secretly hoped it wouldn't be the last time, just like she had that other morning.

When she woke up again around noon, she found Kyo had not returned; everything was just as he had left it. As she moved slowly to go to the bathroom, trying to make every move as careful as possible to minimize pain, she saw a large black object sitting on top of the toilet. Kyo had left his bag! He would have to return now, since everything he owned (except his bike, basically) was in it.

Saya lifted it off the toilet seat so she could use the bathroom, and left it on the floor when she was done. It was fairly heavy, so she figured Kyo would understand since she would be unable to use the toilet as long as it remained on top of it.

Then, a thought hit her. No one knew what exactly he kept in the bag. Sure, there were clothes, and his medical bag, but it was awfully large to hold just those things, and it looked full. After around a half an hour of careful consideration, she walked into the bathroom, closed and locked the door, and turned to the bag sitting along side the bathtub. She picked it up, and, with great might, finally managed to set it back on top of the toilet seat. As she unzipped the top, she felt guilty. She had trusted Kyo enough not kill her ever since she met him, so why should she betray her trust in him now. If he had felt she needed to know what was in the suitcase, he would have shown or told her. Who knew, maybe someday he would show her of his own accord. She zipped up the bag, left it sitting on the toilet, just how he had left it, and went back to sit in his bed, hoping he would come home soon.


	38. Chapter 38

Chapter Thirty-Eight

It was mid-afternoon when Kyo returned to the town. No one was out on the street; that was good. He had hoped everyone would be preoccupied with something else long enough for him to sneak into his room, get his bag and leave again. He knew Saya would be in there, but he figured she was sleeping. As he made his way into the garage towards the laundry room door, he thought he had made it, but then he heard Ichiro call out his name.

"Come with me for minute, there's something I want to discuss with you."

Kyo didn't exactly have much of a choice at the moment; he thought that if he went along with Ichiro now, maybe he would leave him alone so he could get his things before Mahiro and Hotaro showed up.

As Kyo followed Ichiro out into the empty field next to his house, neither said anything. Ichiro walked slowly, studying the tall weeds that had turned a golden color due to the heat in the air; Kyo matched his pace, trying not to seem hurried or annoyed. Apparently he wasn't bad at pretending, for Ichiro remained silent, pondering over what he was going to say.

"Saya told me what happened this morning." The sentence hung in the air. Kyo was surprised, but avoided looking at Ichiro, still trying to conceal his direct gaze from everyone since his sunglasses were still in the house. He had hoped no one had thrown them out with the other debris. After a pause, Ichiro continued, this time turning to look at Kyo.

"None of us are asking you to explain anything, I really don't think anyone cares, well, no one who matters," Ichiro ended with a smile.

"When did she tell you?" Kyo was curious, but still avoiding eye contact by squinting off into the distance.

"I went to check on her an hour or so ago. She was sitting in your bed, looking out the window at her garden, probably wishing she could be out there. I asked where you were and she said she didn't know, and after a few more questions, by which I mean a lot, I was able to piece it together." No one said anything more. It was a long while before Ichiro thought maybe Kyo didn't understand what he was trying to say. "You don't have to leave, you know. No one here really wants that."

"It's not a matter of choice, it's a matter of necessity. I have to leave," Kyo stated matter-of-factly as he looked out over the field at some trees on the horizon that, he assumed, ran the length of another river.

"You have to do what you have to do I suppose, but there was another matter I wanted to discuss with you." Kyo stood there, unmoving, in the tall grass with his hands in his pockets. "You must have realized that Mrs. Aizawa and I have been friends for a long time now. Kentaro and Kazemichi are like family to me, and I care for all of them very much," Kyo thought he might be able to see where this was headed. "I know she has suffered a lot since the loss of her husband, but, do you suppose, it might be alright if I asked her to marry me? I could help support her better that way, I think, because we would live together, I would be nearer to her…"

"Why are you asking me?" Kyo stated abruptly as he crossed his arms over his chest, still staring at the horizon.

"I suppose because I wanted to talk to someone, and I thought it might be better if it was a man I spoke with, and Kazemichi is too young. Plus, he's too close to the situation."

"If its what you want. What about Saya, Mahiro and Hotaro?"

"I'm assuming they'd live with us."

"Where? Both houses are too small."

"I don't know, I suppose I haven't thought…"

"Do me a favor," Kyo finally gave voice to one of his more recent fears, "if you marry her and decide to make a new family and whatnot, move west. Somewhere isolated, off of any kind of road. You don't want to be found or known."

Ichiro just stared at the man who would not look back at him. He knew the advice wasn't a joke; Kyo somehow knew what was out there, what was coming. Ichiro wanted to ask him what it was that even he feared enough to run from, for the man clearly feared very little. But now was not the time.

"Is that where you'll go?" Kyo visibly grimaced. It wasn't a secret that he was moving westwards, but the less people knew, the better.

"Can't you at least wait until after Mahiro's birthday? It's in two days." How could Kyo forget? Hadn't Mahiro been running around for as long as he'd known her proclaiming that she was no longer ten but "almost eleven." Kyo knew the right thing to do would be to stay, but he somehow had the feeling that the longer he stayed, the more he would feel obligated to stay for every occasion; birthdays, holidays, festivals, whatever event they could come up with.

"Yeah, sure, but on that third day, I leave."

"Fair enough," was all they said before walking back to Ichiro's house.


	39. Chapter 39

Chapter Thirty-Nine

When Saya heard the door to Kyo's bedroom open softly, she continued to lie peacefully on the bed as if she were asleep. When she heard the door shut, she barely opened her eyes to check to see if anything had changed. Certain enough, she watched Kyo walk in, wearing his leather jacket with his helmet in hand, and head towards the bathroom. She felt a jump in her heart as she thought he might just collect his duffel bag and go, but when he closed the door behind him, she relaxed a little. She had seen how worried Ichiro had been when she had told him she didn't know where Kyo was (she still hadn't told him about the time he had tried to leave, but ended up returning), but then she told him about the duffel bag. Ichiro had also noticed that Kyo had forgotten his sunglasses, which were sitting on the kitchen table, and realizing that Kyo would have to be in a very big hurry to forget both items, he began to question her as to what had happened to make the boy leave. Eventually the truth about the whole attempted choking thing came out, and Ichiro didn't know what to do. Saya knew he liked the boy an awful lot, but Kyo seemed as though you could not appeal to him in any way to get him to stay, even when promised food, a bed, and some good company (depending on who you were).

She heard the shower turn on. 'He must have decided to stay,' was Saya's only thought before relaxing her body and mind for sleep again. But she couldn't sleep anymore, so she merely laid awake, listening to Kyo take a shower, which was soothing in itself; she was fond of the sound of running water.

Shortly after the water stopped, the bathroom door opened, and much to Saya's surprise, a nearly naked Kyo, wearing only a towel, walked out. She couldn't help but stare at the strange sight. After all, the last time she saw it, she had been hysterical, so for all intensive purposes, this was the true first time she had seen him without jeans on.

-

Kyo felt like a fool. In all his anger about being convinced to stay longer, he had forgotten that he had washed his clothes a few days ago, and had not put them in the duffel. So while he had the duffel, he had had no clothing to change into in the bathroom. As he walked out in the bedroom and saw Saya awake, he felt uncomfortable, slightly. The same kind of uncomfortable he had felt upon seeing her in her underwear the night before. He looked away, quickly crossing the room and gathering the clothes he needed, then returning to the bathroom.

-

As soon as Saya had gotten over the fact that Kyo was wearing only a towel, she began to inspect his body. It hadn't really been intentional; Saya didn't have enough experience (or any at all for that matter) with men to really measure and compare, but what intrigued her were all the scars. She had noticed them the night before, but she had still not gotten used to it. He easily had just as many as her and they all varied. She even imagined some looked like bullet wounds, but she had never seen one in her life, so she really wasn't sure. She really wished she could have looked closer or felt comfortable enough to ask him about them, but she knew both were fairly impossible as he walked back into the bathroom.

-

'Fuck!' was his only thought as he realized he had forgotten a t-shirt. But at least he had remembered pants and boxers. He walked back out of the bathroom, turning off the light as he exited. He walked towards his nightstand, where his t-shirts were folded in a pile. Saya was awake and looking out the window, but she turned to look at him as he came out. Their eyes met for a moment, but Kyo quickly looked away. Saya, more interested in his scars than anything else at the moment, continued to look at him.

"Like what you see?" was the comment Kyo made as he reached the pile of shirts. He was trying to make her more uncomfortable so that he could feel less uncomfortable. He figured it would be easy; it was Saya after all.

"Where did you get them?" He certainly hadn't expected his comment to prompt her to speak. Why here? Why now? She never responded to anyone else.

"Various places."

"How?"

"Various ways." He put on a shirt, covering the objects of Saya's interest. "I'm going down stairs, you want anything?" he said without looking at her. She shook her head and he closed the door behind him, placing his glasses, which he had retrieved from the kitchen table on his way in, over his eyes as he went down stairs.


	40. Chapter 40

Chapter Forty

He walked into the kitchen to find Ichiro making dinner, looking very pleased with himself. Kyo crossed the room and opened the refrigerator, taking out a soda. Apparently every month or so, some of the men from the village raided a near-by deserted town or gas station or whatever they could find in order to get luxury items like soda that they could not make. It was only a matter of time before the whole place either had to be 100 self-sufficient, which meant even churning their own butter (Kyo wasn't entirely sure they didn't do that already for the hell of it), or they would have to migrate. If they were smart, they would move, like Kyo had told Ichiro to do earlier.

"Tomorrow, do you think you can handle the fantastic four?" The 'fantastic four' was Ichiro's name for Mahiro, Hotaro, Kentaro and Kazemichi all together, in one room, at one time. It was a frightening prospect. But Kyo figured he didn't really have a choice. Only a few more days, and then he was gone. Now that Kensuke wasn't a threat, and he had warned Ichiro, he felt he had no ties.

"Yeah, sure."

"I've decided that I will ask Mrs. Aizawa for her hand tomorrow."

"Well, if you're gonna marry her, I'd stop calling her 'Mrs. Aizawa'." Ichiro started laughing; apparently he hadn't even realized it was such an entrenched habit.

"I'm almost done with dinner, will you take some up to Saya?"

"Sure," was all Kyo said, but Ichiro could see that the request made his young companion uncomfortable.

"You know you shouldn't be afraid of her, she really can't hurt you, at least not in her current shape." Ichiro saw that this did nothing to alleviate Kyo's tension. "She doesn't hold anything against you for this morning," he said seriously. "Here," he held out a bowl. Kyo took it, setting down his soda on the table, and walked upstairs.

-

When Kyo opened the door, carrying a bowl of soup and a spoon, he saw Saya laying on the bed with her eyes closed, but before he could sneak out quietly, she sat up. Apparently she had been merely resting, not sleeping as Kyo had thought. He crossed the room and handed the bowl and spoon to Saya, who began to eat. He stood there for a moment, feeling awkward, then left to go back downstairs, where Ichiro had dinner ready. Tonight, Mahiro and Hotaro were back, so dinner was a great flurry of conversation about Kentaro, Kazemichi and Mrs. Aizawa and how much fun they had had. When Kyo walked back upstairs, he found Saya asleep, the bowl and spoon on the bedside table. Kyo slept in the kitchen that night.


	41. Chapter 41

Chapter Forty-One

Kyo was glad to be young, because he wasn't that sore when he woke up the next morning, despite having slept at the kitchen table, much like Ichiro had only a few nights ago. He immediately got up and went to work; someone had brought in a real piece of shit yesterday, and the whole thing needed to be rebuilt. Heading out to the garage, he felt the morning's cool breeze. He enjoyed the feeling of it now, knowing that he'd miss it that afternoon.

Kyo worked the entire morning, seeing Ichiro only once. Apparently the man was pulling out all the stops. He was making a nice dinner, but planned to take her out that afternoon to ask her properly. That was when Kyo needed to watch the "fantastic four." Kyo was less than thrilled. Ichiro also told him that Saya wasn't well, and, if it was alright with Kyo, she would stay another day in his room, sleeping. Kyo couldn't care less, but he did need to shower before babysitting; he was currently covered in oil that the truck had sprayed at him in retribution for touching its intimate regions. Luckily when he got around to going up to his room to clean, Saya was asleep. Maybe she really was sick.

-

Mrs. Aizawa brought her boys over around two o'clock that afternoon, and she and Ichiro left to go walk along the river. She looked nice, and both were happy as they left. The kids were just as happy at the prospect of driving Kyo insane. Mahiro and Kazemichi were easily amused with each other, but Hotaro and Kentaro were another matter entirely. Kentaro wasn't quite the demon as Hotaro, but they were definitely brothers in crime. Kyo spent his afternoon taking ten years off of his life expectancy (which wasn't all that long anyway) with attempts to catch glass vases in mid-air, turn off all of the car alarms that the two had turned on in the spare parts room, keep them from burning their faces off in the oven, and intervening in about a million other similarly ridiculous antics involving toilet paper, some screwdrivers and cheese. Of course, Kyo's temper wore out fast, and so did his patience, which led to the ultimate solution; go to Mrs. Aizawa's house and turn on the VCR. He would have let them just run around in circles outside, but thunderheads were rolling through the valley, and he didn't feel like being responsible if the two got lost in a rain storm and then everyone had to go out in the dark, cold night and search for them. Besides, knowing them, they would undoubtedly climb the tallest tree on the tallest hill around and get struck by lightning. Oh well, Barney worked just fine to calm their tantrums, as Kyo passed out on the couch next to the lovey-dovey pre-teens. Listening to them, Kyo thought for a moment about whether or not Mrs. Aizawa might say yes.

'As if she would ever say no.' Kyo thought it was fairly obvious to anyone with a pulse that the two liked each other at least well enough to marry, if only for the feeling of support and companionship. Besides, they now had a combined four kids to watch, and having two adults (three, including Saya) to pool their collective energies would make life a lot easier.

It was then that Kyo started to ponder the whole idea of marriage and love. He had known enough men who thought highly of women in romantic terms; some truly loved, and some just loved to be lovers. He himself had no experience of either, but he had met people who claimed it was the greatest experience of a lifetime. Overall, most of the men he knew who had married had married young; mostly childhood sweethearts. He figured war did that to people. Many comrades had said they simply liked the idea of knowing someone was waiting for them to return. They never mentioned the fact that, more often than not, they didn't return. At least, not unless they were in a bag.

Kyo figured women weren't worth the effort. He had never met anyone, man or woman, he considered friend, so why would he ever believe he would find someone to call "love." The two little ones began to fidget.

'Please, just let it wait until they come home!' Kyo exclaimed in his head. Luckily, it wasn't too much longer until Ichiro and Juri (as he was now calling her) returned home with the good news; they were to be married soon.


	42. Chapter 42

Chapter Forty-Two

Now, Kyo wasn't surprised at all at this turn of events, having talked to Ichiro about it the day before, but Kazemichi and Mahiro immediately threw tantrums. They were going to be like brother and sister in law? True, they weren't blood related in any way; Ichiro wasn't even their father, but he was their father figure, and if they were all going to live together, that meant that Ichiro was to be their father and Juri their mother, and everyone knows you don't date relatives!

'Well, this is a small town…I'm sure you wouldn't hear too much complaint from the other villagers,' thought Kyo with a smirk of entertainment on his face. Juri quickly explained that this didn't mean that they couldn't date, but it did mean that they would be family from now on, so if their romantic relationship failed, they would still have to be able to get along and live together. As far as Kyo could see, Mahiro and Kazemichi would probably be together until they died; there just weren't that many people to choose from in the area. Besides, he had little pity for Ichiro and Juri; they were intentionally setting themselves up to be double teamed for the rest of their lives by the moron twins.

-

Dinner was at Ichiro's that night, and everyone was at the table, except for Saya, who was sleeping soundly in Kyo's room. After a long while of sitting around and talking, well, mostly listening if you were Kyo, and watching kids fall asleep, Ichiro helped Juri take her boys back to her house, while Kyo carried Hotaro and pushed Mahiro up the stairs. He didn't wait for Ichiro to come back before going into his room to check on Saya. He had to admit, he was slightly worried; she hadn't made a noise or eaten in hours.

Saya, as it turns out, wasn't sleeping, but shook her head at offerings of food or drink. She asked what had happened downstairs; it had sounded like a celebration.

"Ichiro asked Juri to marry him, and she said yes, so everyone was celebrating. You should have seen the looks on Mahiro and Kazemichi's faces when they heard they were in essence going to be like brother and sister and have to live in the same house." Kyo could tell Saya was upset. He stared at her with a somewhat concerned and serious look on his face, which in reality wasn't too different from his normal façade, though she just continued to look out the window.

Kyo thought he could understand where her discomfort was coming from; if she was anything like the description Ichiro had given him on the first day Kyo had met Saya, then she definitely did not like change. And yet, here she was, caught in the middle of a drastically changing world. Part of Kyo wanted to say "too fucking bad," but another part thought differently. She had just killed a blood relative, had nearly been beaten to death, had to rely on the kindness of strangers, and now her few family members were being taken into someone else's family. She wasn't a child to be cared for like Mahiro or Hotaro, but she wasn't exactly an adult like Ichiro, who could take care of and fend for himself. To try to cope with killing someone you knew, then to have your base of support drastically change, Kyo figured it would be very upsetting. If you weren't trained for it.

"I can go to my room if you like, so you can have your bed back."

"It's fine, I don't mind."

"Ichiro told me you slept in the kitchen last night, that can't be comfortable." Only then did she turn to look at Kyo, who had begun to move towards the door, but was stopped in his tracks at the mention of sleeping in the kitchen. He had really hoped no one had seen that. "I understand if you wish to sleep alone, after all, this is your room…" Kyo didn't let Saya continue.

"This isn't my room, it's Ichiro's house. I'm as much a guest here as you are, probably more so. If you would like to sleep here, its fine with me." Kyo looked at Saya, who seemed sadder than ever. He was starting to get tired of the whole moping thing, but he didn't know how to make it stop anymore than he knew how to keep Hotaro from running around the island counter in Mrs. Aizawa's kitchen singing the "This is the Song that Never Ends" song. He closed the door, and sat on the edge of the bed, taking off his shoes and sunglasses before lying down to sleep.


	43. Chapter 43

Chapter Forty-Three

Despite Kyo's attempt to make a truce between he and Saya by lying down to sleep next to her, he couldn't help but feel that it wasn't what she wanted. She had clearly expressed that she didn't want him sleeping anywhere else, and that should would move if he wanted her to, which meant that she must have wanted to stay in his room too, so why was she still upset now that both of them were in the room together? Wasn't this what she wanted? Kyo really hoped Ichiro knew what he was getting himself into, because as far as he was concerned, women were too much of a waste of time. Well, they were when they couldn't make up their minds or express themselves clearly. And yet, that seemed to be Saya in a nutshell, and he didn't dislike her through and through…in fact, he wasn't sure he disliked her at all. He had risked his life for her after all, hadn't he?

He must have dozed off in the night, because he woke up sometime later to the sound of thunder. Though it had been threatening to rain for hours, he assumed it had started just now. He saw the room light up and turned to see the window, which, he remembered, Saya had uncovered so she could look out into the backyard. As he sat up, he was greeted by the sight of Saya sitting at the foot of the bed, a blanket wrapped around her, staring out the window at the night.

-

Saya had always hated thunderstorms. The brash noises and the blinding jolts of light, dogs barking and babies crying. It was reminiscent of the nights that bombs had been dropped. She had been young, but remembered the booms and lights she had seen from a distance; she had been frightened that bombs would fall on her every single time and kill her much the way they had killed her sister and her sister's husband. Once she had Mahiro and Hotaro, she had tried to be strong, during both the intermittent bombings and during summer thunderstorms because she was their guardian now, and she had to raise them to fear nothing in this world if they were to survive in it. However, being fearless was not exactly Saya's strong point, though anyone who had met either child would say she had done well in succeeding in her goal. Every once in a while, when she was alone during a storm, she still thought she could remember the bombings that happened years ago, but there was a greater fear that lurked in the noise and light.

Often the ferocity of nature reminded her of her uncle, as anything that brought up feelings of helplessness and fear reminded her of him. But thunderstorms were the worst, since the thunder that accompanied the light made her jump as though he were walking towards her with his heavy feet and dark façade. Even now, knowing he was dead, she thought she could hear him traveling up the stairs…

She felt eyes on her, and was startled to look over and see Kyo sitting up in bed, watching her emotions display themselves openly across her face. She looked away, down at her hands that clutched the blanket. She felt as if his gaze looked more than right into her; it looked through her, as if she were as clear as glass.

"You shouldn't beat yourself up about it, he wasn't exactly a stellar citizen." Saya didn't say anything, but at least she wasn't crying or anything.

"I don't like thunderstorms," was all she replied after a long while, looking back outside at the night.

'You don't like storms my ass,' thought Kyo, though he could tell that there was some truth in it. It wasn't unusual for people to be afraid of thunder and lightning, especially if they had been traumatized by things like war. Saya continued to stare out the window, looking more miserable than before. Kyo gave up talking to her.

-

The next thing Saya felt was a hand hooked around her waist, pulling her across the bed and down. She hadn't fully comprehended the situation until she felt another arm wrap over the top of her as she lay facing the window. Kyo was behind her. He had pulled her down next to him, and then pulled her close to him with both arms, as if trying to keep her captive. She put up no fight.

It was at this moment that Kyo wondered what he was to Saya. Sure, he had apparently saved her, but once again, he remembered the threats he made to rape and kill her to try to get Kensuke's attention. He had never told her they were false; he didn't expect her to believe him if he ever tried to convince her of his good intentions. But what did that mean, if she didn't trust him? Was he a replacement for Kensuke? Threatening her only with words, not fists, but threatening none the less? Could that be how she viewed him?

He looked at the sleeping Saya in his arms. Perhaps that was how she felt about him; he was another dangerous person that she needed to have in her life because it gave her some sense of…Kyo didn't know what. But at the same time, something told him that wasn't true.


	44. Chapter 44

Chapter Forty-Four

Kyo was the first to wake up the next morning. He had rolled onto his back while Saya had turned over to lie on her stomach near the wall as she slept. Her head was turned facing towards Kyo; her hair had come undone, and it radiated all around her face, as it shone like polished gold in the sunlight (neither of them had closed the blinds before falling asleep the second time last night). The storm must have passed through; there were no threatening clouds right now. Kyo was glad to wake up in a bed, and he surprisingly didn't mind sharing with Saya; maybe it reminded him of older days when he shared rooms with his comrades, and when they had gone out, they had slept under the sky in groups as well.

Kyo couldn't hear any noise, so he assumed everyone was still asleep. Hotaro and Mahiro should be getting to school soon; Mahiro's birthday fell on a Saturday, which gave everyone a few days to prepare. Saya began to move slightly, taking a deep breath. Kyo had sat up in bed, leaning against the wall since there was no headboard, alternating between looking out the window and down at Saya; once Saya began to move, he focused his attention on her. Perhaps he didn't even realize it, but his stare continued on for a long while, until Saya opened her eyes and looked up at him.

-

He looked slightly unhappy, with his brow furrowed. He was looking directly at her, without sunglasses, for the first time. Just as Saya was about to speak up, Kyo looked away and got off of the bed. He was fully dressed, so he didn't need to change to go outside; he picked up his sunglasses from the nightstand with his back to her.

"You need anything from downstairs?" he asked over his shoulder.

"No," Saya replied as Kyo picked up his shoes. He walked out the door, closing it behind him and leaving Saya alone. She sat there for some while, pondering over the past few hours. Kyo was a strange man to try to understand. She figured it would more than likely take someone months, or even years, at this rate to learn what made him tick.

But she felt much better today, so she crawled out of bed and took a shower. She was embarrassed at not having showered in so many days and sleeping next to Kyo in his bed, but she hadn't done any sort of activity, so she thought she probably didn't smell horrible.

She then continued on downstairs, where she could hear Mahiro and Hotaro getting ready to leave. The moment they saw her, they jumped up out of their chairs and ran to her to give her large hugs. Saya was overjoyed at their reactions. She sat at the table as Ichiro gave her some eggs and toast and Mahiro told her all about last night and how they were going to be one big, happy family, while Hotaro beamed his radiant smiles that his was quite capable of when not planning or doing anything mischievous. Saya found it interesting that she herself noticed that in this happy picture, Kyo, the man who made the whole thing possible, was not mentioned. Not that he would want to be included in their plans for the future, but Saya couldn't help feeling somewhat distressed at the thought of his omission in their lives.


	45. Chapter 45

So it has just been brought to my attention by Randolph Carter that Roxy Music is not a "girly"band. That is probably very true. In fact, I got Avalon (the CD that 'More Than This' is on) from my boyfriend (despite the name 'Harold Weathervien', I am not a man, if you haven't guessed that already, not that you probably care). But this is Kyo we're talking about, and while I love the gender-bending antics of Highschooler-Deeper-Kyo (you should read that if you haven't!) I think the original Kyo would be slightly more obsessed about seeming manly. Speaking of, I don't own Kyo.

So thanks for the review, but as a heads up, the music referrenced in here might not be very girly (there is more music mentioned in later chapters), but after about chapter 50, this story more or less turns into the Kyo-and-Saya show (actually, it kind of has already, but there will be more violence later, I promise!). If you think you can stomach it and want to find out more about Kyo's past, please keep reading!

By the way, thanks for noticing it was set in the future Adrian!

Chapter Forty-Five

Kyo was working out in the garage on the piece of shit car that he had been trying to fix the day before, and felt that he was making no progress. He wanted very much to make the same suggestion that he had made to Juri; just get a new God damn car (well, in her case it had been a laundry machine, but same difference). But attempting to fix it kept him busy and away from everyone else. Just then he sensed a presence behind him. He didn't even need to look to see who it was; only one person around here was quiet enough to move unnoticed around him. He turned to look at Saya, wrench still in hand.

"I was wondering if you knew what to give Mahiro for her birthday." That's right, Kyo had heard about a tradition of giving gifts on birthdays, but had never experienced it himself. He hadn't even thought of giving Mahiro a present.

"No."

"Um, everyone else already had presents planned out, so I offered to do the cooking and decorating. Its not a big deal, but…" Saya looked uncomfortable; actually, that was an understatement, she looked like she was about to explode from anxiety.

"Yeah…"

"I don't know how to drive."

'Okay…' Kyo had no clue where this was going, but that was one of the things he liked about the girl. She was impossible to figure out.

"I can make everything from scratch here, but I wanted the icing for the cake to be colored, and I don't have any food coloring here and…"

"You would like a ride into the next town," Kyo said, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning against the old truck, but not smirking. He wasn't making fun of the girl; he was actually being serious, trying to help her along through her halting speech.

"Yes."

"Okay, let's go, while they're still in school."

-

They rode out west of town; apparently there was another village nearby that was deserted. Saya had relaxed by now from her fear of asking Kyo for a favor, though Kyo could tell the girl was obviously afraid of cars. She seemed like she was ready for the truck to explode at any minute, clutching onto the hand rest and dashboard. Kyo was slightly insulted; he wasn't _that_ bad of a driver.

'It's a really good thing we went in Ichiro's truck rather than on my bike; she woulda _loved_ that," Kyo thought while a smirk appeared on his face. If she was freaking out now, he could just imagine the death grip she would have held onto him with, had she been behind him on the motorcycle. Kyo was lost in the idea of her sitting so close to him, bringing back memories of the night before, but he was rapidly pulled out of his little world…

"I hate to ask you another favor, but do you think you could distract Mahiro tomorrow? I would like to bake and decorate without having to worry about her and I know everyone else will probably be working on their presents." Kyo was starting to be amazed at how much Saya was speaking to him; she didn't even say this much to Juri, then again, she hadn't slept in Juri's bed for several nights in a row now either.

"Yeah, I'll think of something."

It was just then that Kyo saw a house in the distance, and then a sign on the roadside. As they rounded the corner, they came into another town, though this one was deserted.


	46. Chapter 46

Chapter Forty-Six

The town itself hadn't been bombed; it was only a little larger than the town Ichiro and Saya lived in. Kyo guessed the next town over must have been a target, because it was evident that no harm had come to this area despite the fact that everyone had fled.

Kyo parked the truck just inside of the beginning of downtown. Saya stepped out of the truck and closed the door with a slam, walking away like she knew exactly where she was going. Kyo was a little more hesitant as he followed her. True, it might appear that no one lived there, but that didn't mean anything. One or two people could probably hide here for a long while, eating canned goods and drinking bottled water. Saya ducked into a market place that had a broken glass door. Kyo quickly followed after her.

She must have been very familiar with the place, because she knew exactly what aisle she was looking for. Kyo thought it was a stupid thought; of course she knew where she was going, she had lived here for something like twelve or more years, and it wasn't exactly a large town, so it was easy to get your bearings. Saya picked up a package from the shelf and turned to look at Kyo, who stood further down the aisle, with a smile. She looked at the ground as she began to walk back towards him without waiting to see if he might return the smile.

"Do you need anything else?"

"I don't think so."

"You want to look just in case?"

"Sure…" Saya began to wander around the store, Kyo following at a distance, also glancing at the shelves. If he was going to pass through here later, it would be good to know what they had, in case he decided he needed something.

Something caught Saya's eye. She picked up a small package, looking very pleased. As Kyo came closer to see the box, Saya held it up for him. Birthday candles. Kyo gave a half smile as he continued to walk along. All this birthday stuff was insane to him. Who really cared if you aged another year? Granted he had never had a true family, but that didn't matter to those around him in the least. Only one person had ever made any effort to treat him as a child…

"I don't think there's anything else."

"Alright."

-

Kyo had asked Saya if there was anything else she wanted from this town, and while she had said she didn't think so, she had offered to show him the other shops.

"This was a dress store, sometimes Mrs. Aizawa and I come here for needles. This was a bakery, its not of much use now, except maybe for kitchen tools, but those can be found in the hardware store at the end of the street." She talked quietly the whole time, always looking into the windows, never at him, but Kyo found it surprisingly nice to listen to her talk about meaningless things. Certainly he would never need to know about the jewelry shop in town, but he liked hearing her memories of the place when it was still alive.

-

They returned that afternoon far later than they had estimated, mostly due to the walk they took around the ghost town, so Mahiro and Hotaro had already returned from school. Upon hearing the truck pull into the driveway, both children ran outside to ask them where they had been.

"We went for a drive," Kyo replied gruffly, trying to repress any other questions the two might have about the day's activities.

"You should have waited, I would have liked to have gone with you!" Mahiro pleaded in vain.

"I'll take you for a ride tomorrow." Kyo had figured out how to distract Mahiro for the day, and it could be a present. "It is your birthday, after all."

Mahiro jumped up and down with joy.


	47. Chapter 47

Chapter Forty-Seven

Saya had hidden the birthday candles and the food coloring away in the kitchen in one of the top shelves, and was having a glass of water as she was sitting up on the counter top, looking out the window at the back yard. It was night time, and the view was beautiful; all of the clouds from the previous day had rolled through their little valley, leaving an almost full moon to drench the rain-soaked earth instead. Saya heard someone come down the stairs, and figured it would be Mahiro, unable to sleep due to early birthday excitement; what she saw was a grumpy Kyo, still wearing his sunglasses even though the sun had set almost three hours ago. She stared at him as she held the glass in both hands, while her arms were wrapped around her knees.

"Don't you think it's too early to start baking," Kyo threw out sarcastically.

"Mahiro took my bed. And I didn't want to wake Hotaro."

"Jesus no." Kyo was always thankful when the boy finally wore himself out each day. "But I'm surprised Mahiro didn't kick out Hotaro and take over the queen-sized bed."

"Hotaro is a berserker with a pillow in his hand."

"Hotaro is a berserker even with nothing in his hand." Kyo had been serious despite the joke-like quality of his comment, but Saya giggled for a moment anyway, realizing how true his statement really was. "Besides, I thought we had talked about not sleeping in the kitchen." This statement was also said with sarcasm, but Saya felt it dig in fairly deep. She had planned to sleep there if she couldn't find a way to get into bed without waking up Hotaro. "You need to sleep." Saya thought he was encouraging her to go to sleep with Hotaro no matter what; she knew her exhaustion showed, but her surprise was even greater when she realized that Kyo meant that she could sleep in his room again. "I've gotta shower still, I'm assuming Mahiro wants to leave at 5am, so that gives me no time to do it then unless I want her standing on the toilet seat, yelling at me to shampoo faster." Saya smiled at the image, and knew it was a likely stunt for Mahiro to pull through and through. Saya and Kyo walked upstairs and into his room, where he not only closed but locked the door. "I really don't want to wake up at five in the morning." It was said so seriously and flatly that Saya couldn't help but let out the smallest, softest laugh, before they parted ways for Kyo to shower and Saya to sleep.

-

When Kyo got out of the shower he looked at the pile of clothes he had placed on the sink. He would be lying if he said he didn't mind sleeping fully clothed, but he had been so sure he would have to get up to defend himself the first couple of nights that he had made it a habit. Plus, he thought it would be awkward sleeping in his underwear around a shy woman that he didn't know. However, he was tired of legs stiff from sleeping in jeans, and having that groggy feeling that accompanies you all day if you don't change in the morning. He put on his boxers and left the bathroom, turning the light off before opening the door so he could check to make sure Saya was asleep. She was.

'Good, now I can finally go to bed without wearing my entire wardrobe,' he thought, relieved. As he pulled back the covers to get inside, he felt strange. Not bad, but different. He had shared his bed with Saya before, but not like this. He climbed inside and fell asleep easily, quickly forgetting, or more like pushing aside, his feelings of being ill-at-ease. Tomorrow was going to be a long day.


	48. Chapter 48

Chapter Forty-Eight

Even before Saya woke up, she felt warm. Not only was the sun shining on her from the window, but she felt snug and protected. She was happy as she was slowly moving into the conscious world, pulling her legs up, snuggling against the pillow, putting her hands together-that is, until she realized one of them was not her hand.

Saya became very aware, very quickly. Kyo was just behind her in bed, but not on top of the sheets as usual. Saya rolled over slowly to see Kyo still sleeping, his arm lying on top of the blanket. He wasn't wearing a shirt. Saya became very nervous, and decided it was best to just crawl out of bed without making any sudden movements that might wake him up. She had never done anything with anyone before, after all, so she wasn't exactly sure what to do when you woke up in the morning next to a man, in the same bed, both scantily clad. Especially since the previous mornings had hardly been successful even when they were fully clothed. First, she gently pulled away from him, letting his arm that had been lying on top of her fall down onto the mattress. Then she backed off the bed, making her exit successfully.

Back in her room, Mahiro woke while she was changing.

"Is Kyo awake yet?"

"No." Then, to make it sound as though she didn't know from first hand experience, she added, "at least, I don't think so."

"You slept in his room last night again, didn't you?" Saya turned white as a sheet. She didn't know Mahiro knew that she had been spending nights in Kyo's room. Even though she hadn't done anything with him (that would have been fairly obvious to anyone who ever met Kyo), she didn't want to set a bad example for Mahiro, stating that it was ok to stay in strange men's rooms at night.

"I'm going to go make pancakes, chocolate chip," Saya leaned down to kiss Mahiro on the forehead while she still lay in bed, propped up on one elbow. "Happy birthday, Mahiro." Mahiro didn't pursue Saya with anymore questions about Kyo; she saw how upset it made Saya to be asked about being with him at night, but she wasn't sure why. Maybe there was something she was missing?

Saya went down stairs and tried to occupy herself as best she could to forget about the embarrassing encounter with her niece.


	49. Chapter 49

Chapter Forty-Nine

It was a beautiful day. Clouds were passing through the brilliant blue sky swiftly, and thunderheads threatened the peace, but never came that close to ruin the calm. There was a weak wind that blew the heads of the weeds and crops down to create ripples through the fields like waves in an ocean. Mahiro probably would have liked the comparison, had she have known what the ocean looked like, but having never been to one before, it did not cross her mind. It was also her birthday.

Kyo took Ichiro's truck once more out westwards, but instead of going into the deserted town, Kyo took a side road that Ichiro told him went down to the area where the creek met a larger river. Kyo figured he and Mahiro could walk along beside it for a while before heading home in the early afternoon for dinner.

They had left early in the morning, well, early for Kyo, just like he had expected, but he felt more rested than he thought he would, having gone to sleep fairly late. Saya was already cooking pancakes when he walked downstairs, glad to have his sunglasses to protect him from the bright sunlight that poured into the kitchen. Everyone was very happy and wishing Mahiro a happy birthday. Kyo thought she looked like she was gonna be sick from stuffing herself with so many chocolate chip pancakes, so he announced it was time to get going if she wanted to go out on her birthday. Hotaro was glad to hear his sister was leaving; it meant more pancakes for him. While Kyo could hopefully save Mahiro from being sick later, he was sure Hotaro would throw up twice before he decided he'd had enough breakfast. Then it would be time to have pancakes for lunch. Kyo thought he was going to be sick jut at the thought of that little glutton. Saya had made them wait while she packed them a lunch, to take up more time, Kyo assumed. He was grateful to her because it meant that he had a smaller chance of crashing the car, but his dislodged fingers felt something other than gratitude. Of course they should blame Mahiro more, she was the one who was actually trying to pull them out of place by forcefully leading him to the truck.

Saya…

"Hey, Kyo?"

"Yeah…" He intentionally didn't sound happy to have his thoughts interrupted.

"What's sex?" Had Kyo been drinking something at that moment, it would have been sprayed over the entire interior of Ichiro's truck.

'Jesus fucking Christ, this is going to be a long day…' Kyo thought before attempting to answer one of the questions he had never thought of an answer to because he simply thought he'd never be asked about it.

-

"That sounds like a very biologically accurate answer," Mahiro said after hearing Kyo's very biologically accurate description. Like hell Kyo knew what to say, so he just told her what he did know, and that was the mechanics of the action. Afterall, she had asked about 'sex', not 'making love' or anything romantic, so she deserved her completely unromantic view of it. "I bet Saya would have fainted if I would have asked her. She looked sick when I asked if she slept in your room last night." Kyo was impressed; Mahiro was no dummy.

"Is that why you wanted to know? You think Saya and…"

"Nope, I just wanted to know because I thought it was something adults knew…and I want to hold it against Kazemichi." Kyo found it hard to believe that a boy as old as Kazemichi didn't know what sex was; if it was true, that kid was in for a hard time, especially if it was Mahiro who was dealing it out.

"Yeah, well, don't tell Saya I told you then, she'd probably kill me," the statement wasn't that funny to Kyo after he said it, remembering the image of Kensuke on the kitchen floor, but Mahiro, who probably had little idea of what had happened that evening, laughed out loud. "As for Kazemichi, you might as well tell him, he's kinda old not to know." Mahiro thought that was a strange statement.

"Why?" Kyo ended up spending the next couple of minutes trying to explain rites of passage and the importance of knowledge and all that stuff, but ended up giving in, asking Mahiro if she was hungry instead of pushing on through the mire of conversation he had made for himself.

"Yeah!" Mahiro said enthusiastically as Kyo parked the car near the river.

'Jesus can these kids eat!'


	50. Chapter 50

Chapter Fifty

It was while Mahiro was busy stuffing her face for the second time that day that Kyo was finally able to think over last night and this morning. Saya had been gone for a while when he woke up; he couldn't even feel her warmth in the sheets. He had missed her, though he didn't want to say it.

He had been happy when she had talked to him freely the other day in the deserted town. Walking around with her, he felt…he couldn't give it a word. Normal perhaps? He was leaving tomorrow. It didn't matter what he felt.

Mahiro continued to eat, and Kyo looked out at the river. Ichiro was marrying Juri; Saya would be left as a strange appendage that was no longer needed in the new family that would be created. But nothing distressed Kyo as much as how he knew he was being affected by everything around him. He had to get out.

-

That night was a huge celebration. Everything was ready when Kyo returned with Mahiro. Saya had done an excellent job decorating, with help from Hotaro and Kentaro, which was obvious by how crookedly cut and hung all of the paper decorations were. The food was delicious and the cake, a nice pastel blue thanks to the food coloring, delighted Mahiro, whose favorite color was blue. Kyo thought it looked quite unappetizing, but it tasted good enough. Then came the presents. Saya told Mahiro that she and Kyo had done the party; Ichiro and Hotaro had worked together to make her a frame from some colored glass and silver that held one of the few remaining pictures of her mom and dad; Mrs. Aizawa gave her a dress that she had made and Kentaro had picked the colors for; Kazemichi gave her a necklace he had found in a nearby town's jewelry shop. That was undoubtedly Mahiro's favorite present, but she was so delighted with everything that no one felt as if they had been slighted. Indeed, she was even very grateful towards Kyo, who had merely taken her out for a ride, and revealed the mystery behind one of life's biggest events. But no one mentioned that.

-

That night's commotion ended in a way much similar to the night that Ichiro and Juri announced their engagement, only this time he had Saya to help him take Mahiro and Hotaro upstairs. Hotaro also had to be wiped down before bed; his face, hands and just about everything else was covered in blue frosting. Saya carried him upstairs as Kyo carried a sleepy Mahiro, who protested bedtime even while rubbing her eyes sleepily. Saya told Kyo to go ahead and put her on the twin bed; it was her birthday after all. Saya would sleep with Hotaro. Kyo continued to lean against the doorframe even after putting Mahiro in bed, watching Saya clean Hotaro. He felt a strange urge to stay and watch her act maternal, and since he could think of no good reason why he shouldn't, he indulged in his desire.

"Kyo, come'mere for a second." Ichiro was behind him in the hall looking in on the little scene as well. Kyo must have been too wrapped in the situation to hear him come up the stairs. He was getting soft.

As soon as they were downstairs in the kitchen, Ichiro laid out his plan to Kyo. Juri's family had a summer home far in the mountains, down a dirt back road to the west. It was apparently in isolated wilderness, and despite its intended use in summer, it had many fire places which could keep the house warm throughout the cold season. They would leave the day after tomorrow. Kyo thought that was a very good plan.

"I know you're planning on leaving in a few hours, but don't you think you could stay one more day to help pack? You could leave early the next morning with us; we could travel together until you think you need to split off from us." Kyo was compelled to say no, that he must leave tomorrow, but he agreed to stay for just one more day. He had a higher chance of not returning if he knew it was too late to return and find them all here. Ichiro was grateful for his help.

As Kyo climbed the stairs after turning out the lights in the kitchen, he felt a slight despair in the back of his mind. Despite all his railing and ranting to himself about how awful this place was, he was going to miss it. He was going to miss these people, who, although he wasn't treated exactly like family, at least included him like some long-lost nephew or cousin who had recently come back into their lives. As he reached the top step, he saw that the door to Saya's room was open, soft light radiating out from it. Part of him wanted to walk in and see her, but he went into his room instead, and got into bed.


	51. Chapter 51

Chapter Fifty-One

The next morning was a rush as everyone tried to pack and get ready for the wedding at the same time. Ichiro and Juri, being somewhat old-fashioned, had decided that the town's priest should lead a short ceremony in Juri's back yard so that they could feel officially married before taking up any of the actions of marriage. Kyo thought it was a ridiculous notion; legal documents didn't exist anymore, not that they kept people true or faithful, or caused emotions to suddenly appear. If they wanted to be husband and wife, they should just declare it themselves, without law or religion. It was fairly obvious Kyo had no notion of a religious life as he furrowed his brow when Ichiro asked him to be the best man.

"Why not Kazemichi?"

"Juri wants to ask Saya to be her bride's maid, and Mahiro would be jealous if Kazemichi was paired with Saya." It made sense. Kyo told himself it was the logic of the reasoning that he caved into.

The wedding was that evening, after most things had been packed away into Juri's van and Ichiro's truck. Kyo would take his motorcycle. Kyo felt bad about wearing his sunglasses, but he was almost out without anyone saying anything about his eyes, and he wasn't going to disrupt the ceremony by removing them. Besides, he really didn't need a priest to declare him the progeny of the devil right now. He looked up to see Saya standing across from him in a nice dress, holding a small bouquet of wildflowers the twins had picked in the fields.

They didn't have to stand there long before it was all over. Ichiro and Juri exchanged rings, and she was no longer "Mrs. Aizawa." Kyo hoped Ichiro would remember that and didn't call her it to her face anymore.

Inside Saya had made dinner again; the last dinner they would eat in this house. After everyone had gone to bed early, including Juri and Ichiro, only Kyo and Saya were left to finish cleaning and packing the kitchen.

"You don't have to stay, I can wash the dishes."

"Yeah, but I doubt you can pack the box to the car." Kyo was right; they had put practically all of their dining-wear in one box, and it was far too heavy for her to lift. She finished filling it and Kyo took it outside to load into the van, where they were putting all breakable things. Saya had followed Kyo out into the street, which was completely devoid of life at this time of the night. As he turned to face her, he caught a glimpse of a worried look again. She seemed to be spending an awful lot of her time being upset these days.

"You're leaving tomorrow, aren't you?"

"I could ask the same of you, couldn't I?" Saya looked off, down the street.

"I mean you're leaving us." It wasn't a question.

"I told Ichiro I'd travel with him for as far as I could."

"What does that mean?" Saya said, still not looking at him.

"Exactly what it sounds like," Kyo stated flat out as he walked past her towards the garage entrance. Saya looked exactly the same as she had at the wedding; Kyo could also smell something like perfume as he walked past her. He had been noticing it all day, waiting to get close enough to breathe it deeply. After he had taken a few steps, he noticed that he heard no footsteps following him. He turned to see Saya still standing in the driveway. "Come'on, you gotta leave early tomorrow." She didn't move. He rolled his eyes as he walked back towards her. She turned away from him, lifting a hand to her face, brushing her cheek as she looked away, avoiding eye contact. She was crying. Kyo was a mixture of pissed off and upset, which lead to one very confused man. As neither moved or spoke, he did the one thing he thought had solaced her before. He moved in slowly and wrapped her in his arms, placing his chin on top of her head. She grabbed onto his shirt and started to cry harder. They stood there a long time, just like that. Kyo had no clue why he tolerated all this nonsense emotional stuff-he figured it must come from some sort of attraction to the exact opposite of his own personality, chalking it up to some sort of mystery of the unknown.

After she stopped crying, she backed away from Kyo and wiped her eyes, looking away from him. She couldn't believe she was not only growing this attached to Kyo, but was being silly enough to cry on him. Certainly no one else would try that stunt unless they were out of their mind. Or had a death wish. Kyo just gently took her forearm in hand and led her to his room, where he went to sleep with Saya in his arms again.

'This is getting to be a bad habit,' was Kyo's last thought as he drifted off into the unconscious.


	52. Chapter 52

Chapter Fifty-Two

When Kyo woke up, he felt a weight on his chest. Not a metaphorical one, and he wasn't sick; Saya had placed her head on top of his chest sometime during the night. It didn't bother him, but he wondered how she could sleep while his chest rose and fell with each breath. She suddenly moved further up his body, placing her hand up near his neck. Kyo was starting to feel uncomfortable about how comfortable he felt like this. He put a hand on Saya's back, feeling it fall against her hair. He began to softly pull his fingers through the strands, enjoying the feel of the curls as they wrapped gently around and in between them. He had stopped playing with her hair just in time to pretend to be sleeping as Saya opened her eyes and looked up to find herself asleep on Kyo's chest. If she had been nervous when she woke up two days ago to find Kyo sleeping next to her in only his boxers, she was terrified to realize she had gotten on top of him in the middle of the night. She could barely move, because one of his arms rested on her back. This was going to take a lot of maneuvering, and yet, part of her didn't want to try. This would be the last morning she would wake up to Kyo, and she wished she could have it last for a while longer.

-

Kyo had waited until Saya had left before he "woke up." He had expected her to leave immediately upon realizing the situation she was in, but instead she had lingered in bed awhile. He could feel her staring at him, and remembered the morning when he thought she had touched his face. He almost wished she would do it again, but he figured she would avoid touching him at all costs after what had happened then.

-

As they all headed out, Ichiro and Saya in the truck, Juri and the kids in the van, and Kyo leading the way on his motorcycle, Saya looked down. Kyo remembered the previous night, when she had asked him if he was leaving them today. He wondered if that was what had her down, but he didn't let the thought linger long. After all, how vain would he have to be to think that he affected her as much as the reality of leaving her home.

It was a nice day as they drove quickly over the mountain roads. Indeed, they had passed the hills and were now definitely in the mountains, where the air felt cooler and crisper. Kyo liked the feel of it, especially since he was wearing his leather jacket, which held in a lot of heat. They stopped a little after noon for a break to eat. They had made good time, but they would still need to travel until late, stopping to sleep only a few hours, then getting up to drive again in the early morning. Kyo had decided not to split off yet.

-

Saya said little to anyone that entire day, responding only to questions that were asked directly of her and staying completely silent while sitting in the truck with Ichiro. She helped Juri get some food together to feed everyone that didn't need to be cooked. They had a few apples and some jerky. Not much, but they weren't exactly being very active right now. Besides, Kentaro and Hotaro loved the jerky, and keeping them happy was high on the list of priorities if they were going to get anywhere. As the group ate, they watched the clouds collect into a mass and darken in the west. It was probably another thunderstorm working its way through the mountains. It wasn't long before Kentaro and Hotaro had burned enough energy running in circles playing tag, allowing them to start their journey again. As Kyo had watched the boys play, he wondered why in the world they didn't run into some of the undergrowth or hide behind some nearby trees. It would certainly make the game more interesting since they were only chasing each other.

-

On the road again, the sky became completely overcast. It was a little muggy, but not really hot. Kyo still led the pack, sliding smoothly over the black asphalt. The sky was tinted a brownish-grey that looked even more menacing through the visor on his helmet. But there was a stillness about the day that excited Kyo; the speed of his bike seemed augmented by the slow-moving world about him, as if he were traveling through an empty world alone. As the sun began to sink down in the west, the brownish clouds turned brilliant reds, oranges, and yellows, offsetting the dark blue-purples of the rain clouds threatening to pour down their contents on them at any minute. As Kyo reached the crest of one of the foothills he saw off to the left that the horizon was already being rained down upon. The slanted sheet of blue falling from the sky to the ground was a wall of water. Kyo liked this feeling, that he was the only one alive, racing through the world against no one in particular.

As the first large drops began to fall, Kyo slowed down, not wanting another accident like he had had on that mountain road several weeks ago now. Ichiro caught up with him quickly; Juri wasn't far behind. Then the sky opened and the water came down in thick sheets like he had seen on the horizon. Kyo continued on, hoping to make a few more miles before it got too bad to drive, but the wind began to blow harder as the rain continued in its downpour. He could feel his jeans grow heavy with water, and even the inside of his collar and sleeves were beginning to be invaded by the driving rain. It also became harder to see; his helmet didn't exactly come with windshield wipers. He heard a honk and, looking behind him, saw Ichiro's truck slow. Kyo doubled back to stop next to Ichiro's window.

"We have to stop, its too difficult to see." Kyo nodded, looking for a clearing somewhere. He yelled out to Ichiro so he could hear him through all the noise.

"We should get off the road." Ichiro agreed and Kyo quickly turned around, driving slowly while searching the roadside for an area big enough to hold the two large vehicles. It wasn't far until he found a dirt turn out that was blocked by many trees that would do nicely. Kyo pulled in as far as he could go, making room for the other cars. He pulled a tarp out of a pocket on his duffel bag and began to cover the motorcycle, which was parked some ways off the road behind some trees, not bothering to remove his helmet which was the only thing keeping his head even remotely dry. He heard Ichiro yell out his name but couldn't make out what he said, so he was forced to remove the helmet. Walking back to the cars he listened again as he heard Ichiro call out to him. He walked up to Saya's passenger window, which was closer. She opened the door.

"Get in boy," Ichiro yelled at him as he stepped out of the driver's side door. Kyo quickly climbed in and shut the door as Saya scooted over on the bench seat. Ichiro was returning from the van with what looked like blankets in his hands, running so as not to get very wet. His effort was more or less a failure.

Saya opened the door and took them as Ichiro ran back to the van to be with his wife and all the kids. Kyo and Saya were left alone again. Kyo was starting to suspect that all these nights they spent alone together were part of some master plan of Ichiro's. He wasn't sure why; Kyo had never expressed a desire to take a woman into his life and he was sure as hell that Saya hadn't either. Kyo realized Saya had been trying to hand him a towel for about the last two minutes. He took it and placed it in his lap as he began to shed all clothing that was soaked. This more or less meant his leather jacket. His shirt was ok, but his jeans would need to come off. He waited to do that, hesitating while he picked up the towel and rubbed his hair dry. He didn't bother to put on sunglasses. It was practically too dark to see his features anyway.

He stole a glimpse of Saya, who wasn't wet at all, unfolding a blanket. There was a pillow placed in between them.

'Of course Ichiro grabs one pillow and one blanket,' Kyo thought, but did admit to himself that this wasn't exactly the largest truck ever; had he have given them more comfort items, there would be no room to be comfortable in. Besides, Kyo was fairly used to sleeping sitting up or in otherwise uncomfortable positions; Saya could have the pillow and blanket. Kyo began to undo the button on his jeans, then trying to unzip the fly as quietly as possible; it was more than a challenge, and he still hadn't figured how to remove the wet, clingy fabric from his legs in such a small area without looking completely ridiculous.


	53. Chapter 53

Chapter Fifty-Three

Saya heard a strange noise while she was trying to look busy by fiddling with the blanket; she involuntarily looked at where she thought the noise was coming from, and saw Kyo attempting to take off his pants quietly. She immediately snapped her head back to look at the blanket and only the blanket, focusing on it with all her mental power, but she noticed Kyo start to try to pull the legs of his jeans off from around his ankles out of the corner of her eye. She still pretended as if she were the only person in the truck, with definitely no wet man trying to remove drenched clothing from his body anywhere in the vicinity. It didn't really work, and Kyo could tell very easily from the nervous way she was clinging to the blanket, inspecting every single fiber that collectively came together to make it, that she was indeed trying too hard to ignore him and be interested in a blanket of all things.

Once Kyo was in his shirt and boxers, all other clothing removed, he tried to relax a little more. He leaned back and looked out at the rain, which became harder to see by the minute due to the blackening sky; soon it would look as though there were nothing outside the truck at all. The entire world would be nothing more than a howling void, beating against the truck with small, non-existent fists. Kyo found it somewhat calming.

He suddenly noticed Saya looked very uncomfortable on her side of the truck. He didn't say anything; he didn't even look in her direction.

"Kyo…" Saya began quietly. "We could share the blanket." Kyo contemplated how in the world they could do that; the blanket wasn't exactly the largest thing in the world. Without saying anything he picked up the pillow and put in against the passenger door. Turning to face Saya, he took her by the waist, and pulled her in between his legs, towards his chest, as he leaned back on the pillow, slouching so he was in more of a reclining position. Realizing exactly what Hotaro would do if he could, Kyo reached up to lock the passenger door, so that even if someone tried, it would be difficult to open the door and send Kyo tumbling head-first out of the truck and onto the ground. Saya seemed to understand what he was trying to do; she lay back against him, spreading out the blanket over both of their bodies. Kyo left his arms around Saya's waist and she placed the blanket over them to keep them warm, then placed her own arms beneath the cover and on top of Kyo's arms. Kyo was startled by this action on Saya's part, but reacted by pulling the girl in closer and turning his head so that his right cheek lay against her left ear. He hair slightly tickled, so he lifted a hand to smooth it back, immediately returning his arm to where it lay before. Kyo could feel one of Saya's bare legs against his. Surprisingly, his was very comfortable in this position.

-

The next morning came with a brilliant yellow sunrise, the rain having cleared everything from the air that would have caught the light and turned the sunrise red. The number of birds that were singing would have amazed anyone, and perhaps it was the sheer volume of their song that awoke Kyo. As he came to his senses, he found Saya laying on her side, but sill lying against him. They had both sunk further down onto the seat during the night, but had more or less held their original positions. Kyo could feel one of Saya's hands laying on top of his bicep. He placed his other hand gently on her back, slowly caressing the fabric of her dress up and down her spine, feeling some of curls of her hair that had escaped the ties of her ribbon as he did so. He felt her head nod against his chest, and looked down as he saw her open her eyes. He stopped moving his hand along her back, and stared back at her as she turned to look up into his face. Her hair fell around her face as her large, jade eyes looked up at him with soft concern. He thought that if there had ever been a time in his life when he would have like to kiss someone, it would have been that exact moment. And then Hotaro opened the driver's side door, causing both Saya and Kyo's legs, which were resting against it, to shoot out, making both loose their sense of stability. Luckily neither feel out of the truck, but it did send Kyo scrambling for his sunglasses, and his pants, knowing that everyone was already awake and watching the two of them.


	54. Chapter 54

Chapter Fifty-Four

That day the air was far cooler. Kyo decided to continue to wear the same pair of jeans from the day before to try to dry them out. As he went to get his bike from behind the nearby trees, he was once again reminded of the birds' songs that he had first noticed as he had woken up. He was amazed at how loud they could be; at first he didn't like it at all. He was used to the hollowed out cities, where even insects dared not go. But as he listened on, he started to find their calls more pleasant. He was quickly ready to go, and, not wasting anytime, they all rolled out, heading deeper into the mountains.

-

Today was much clearer than the day before, and the group quickly made up for lost time. So far Kyo hadn't seen any roads that appeared to lead anywhere, so he continued to travel with Ichiro. He once again delighted in his flight over the mountain roads, turning and twisting and ducking on his bike as the roads became windier.

-

Ichiro could tell Saya was more at ease today, but that didn't make him any less upset at Hotaro. He was working so hard to get Kyo and Saya to admit their feelings for each other, verbally or otherwise, and the little devil hadn't helped this morning when everything seemed like it was going to end well. Of course, Ichiro knew that it would take much more than one kiss to normally keep a couple together, but this was Saya and Kyo; as far as he knew, kissing was something reserved for never, so it would carry a lot of weight for both of them.

-

Kyo reached a field that night that bordered against the road and pulled over to wait for Ichiro. He wasn't sitting there that long when the truck came into sight, but he knew it would take Juri a lot longer since the van wasn't exactly meant to be driven through such difficult terrain. They agreed to stay there for the night, and decided a fire would be good, since they hadn't eaten anything other than jerky and apples for almost two whole days now. Kyo set about making the fire, and Saya walked around trying to gather more wood. They built it far back into the clearing, so it would be more difficult to see from the road. Soon after it was going well, Juri arrived and everyone piled out of the van for the night.

-

They had made soup for dinner, and now everyone lay out on blankets around the fire, except for Ichiro and Juri, who claimed to be too old for sleeping of the hard ground, and decided to spend the night in the van. Kyo thought they had an ulterior motive. Hotaro and Kentaro more or less lay sleeping where they had fallen after running around in circles for a few hours. Mahiro and Kazemichi lay next to each other; Kyo was surprised no one had said anything, but they were young, and it wasn't like Mahiro was going to be able to have babies any time soon. Saya lay curled in a large blanket off to Kyo's right, as he sat leaning against a large tree. The fire was beginning to die down, and Kyo closed his eyes, trying to get some rest since he figured no one would be out patrolling this late. He was glad that they had seen no sign of life since they left. Hopefully this would be a truly isolated spot and they could all be safe. He began to wonder how far it would be until they came to another good crossroads; he should probably take the next one he saw that went either north or west. He heard something move near by. Saya was standing a few feet in front of him with a blanket in her arms. He could see that she was startled; she must have thought he was sleeping. She stretched her arm out to hand him the blanket.

"I don't need it."

"You aren't cold?"

"Are you?"  
"A little…" Kyo grabbed her arm and pulled her down. They ended up more or less in the same position as the night before in the truck. Neither slept for a while, but they didn't speak either, letting moments drift by.


	55. Chapter 55

Chapter Fifty-Five

Luckily Kyo and Saya woke up early the next morning, before anyone saw them, and more importantly, before Hotaro did something malicious. It would only be a few more hours until they reached the turn off for the house.

-

Everyone decided to eat while driving, in order to get to the house faster. Time went by slowly for the anxious bunch; well, for everyone except Kyo, whose mind was currently empty of anything at all. Juri had explained to both Ichiro and Kyo what the turn off to the house looked like, and then the series of turns they would need to make after that. First, there was a turn to the left where a collection of five mailboxes of various colors stood. Then at the first fork in the road, one was to go to the left, then left again, then take a right and take the windy road up the hill, then take another right up a long drive way to the circular dirt track that stood in front of the house. All the roads would be dirt. It was easy to spot the first turn off; Kyo thought it was lucky that the directions were so complicated and the turn off fairly inconspicuous. Anyone looking for them, if there ever was such a person, would probably never suspect them to live here. And if they did, they would probably tire of the long twisting, dividing dirt roads before ever finding the house.

As Kyo pulled up to the front porch of the house Ichiro and Juri had decided to raise their family in, only one word came to his mind. "Dump."

It wasn't that it was a bad looking house; quite the contrary. It would be very nice, after several dozen buckets of paint, a few new sheets of glass to fix the broken windows, and new screens to replace the ones that were shredded and falling off. Kyo wasn't sure he wanted to see the inside if the outside was this miserable. At least they would have something to do for the rest of their lives to keep them busy. And probably their children's lives too.

Kyo decided to go in while everyone else was still far behind. There was no guarantee that no one had taken up residence in the house while it had been left vacant for so many years, and if someone was in there, he was the most qualified to deal with them. As he walked inside, he was relieved to see that, first of all, no one was there, and secondly, it wasn't as much of a mess as the outside. All of the furniture was covered with sheets, so it probably had collected no dust, though the house still needed to be aired out. The inside also needed painting as well. Kyo walked to a faucet in the kitchen area and turned it on. No water came out. He assumed that Ichiro would recruit him to help.

He walked upstairs and looked through each of the rooms. There were four bedrooms it looked like; divided among their little group of eight, the couch started to look really good to Kyo. For all he knew, he'd end up rooming with not only Hotaro, but Kentaro as well. He'd wake up everyday to something like a mustache drawn on his face, honey all over his sheets, or, most likely, he'd simply be duct-taped to the bed. Actually, when he considered it seriously, he figured he probably wouldn't sleep at all out of paranoia and would end up going insane and killing them all. Because that thought didn't seem too improbable, Kyo pondered over whether he was insane already as he walked down the stairs from where the bedrooms lined the upper hallway.


	56. Chapter 56

Chapter Fifty-Six

Luckily, the entire house was suurounded by a huge grassy expanse that abruptly turned into the surrounding forest, giving a definite boundary to Kentaro and Hotaro as they ran around burning energy they had bottled up during the ride. Mahiro and Kazemichi both watched and helped unpack and place boxes and bags on the front porch (there was a large back porch as well). Saya, Juri, Ichiro and Kyo did most of the work. Saya and Juri immediately set about picking up the dirty sheets that lay over the furniture and taking them out onto the back porch, shaking them off and placing them in a neat pile to be laundered later. They started in the downstairs living room and kitchen (when one walked into the house from the elevated porch area, they entered a large room which was mostly living room area, with a couch, TV, fireplace, and a few big arm chairs, as well as shelves of books and windows that looked out onto the deck, but about a third of the room was also kitchen area, in which there were many counters and cabinets and another large dining room table, where meals were to be taken. Luckily, Juri's family always left the house fully stocked with all necessities, so there were already pots and pans and utensils and plates, there were even books on the book shelves). After moving upstairs, they decided it was best to begin mopping and dusting the downstairs. It was early afternoon already, so they decided tonight they would all sleep in the living room, since the bedrooms could not be cleaned that day.

While Saya started on the cleaning, Juri went with Kyo and Ichiro to show them the rather large tool shed/garage building where the pump gauges and other such items, as well as tools of course, were kept. The house ran off of the plot's own well, so there would be no need to go find the water district's office and try to correct the water issues from it, which saved them a lot of hassle. Apparently, Juri's family always turned the pump off when they left, so hopefully when Kyo and Ichiro turned it back on, it would work. And it did, so now that water wasn't a problem, the boys turned their attention towards electricity. However, Juri had a solution for that too; the house ran on solar panels. Because it was so remote, and was only just becoming a popular location a few years before the war, no one in the state had wanted to put power lines all the way back there; it would have been too expensive to go through all that work to service only a few people. Therefore, Juri's parents had decided to use solar panels in conjunction with rechargeable batteries to power the house. This way, the house could be run easily in the summer, when it was almost always clear, and in the winter, when the light wasn't so bright, the batteries could be used to power the house. Of course, Juri's family was rarely there in the winter, so the plan most likely would not allow them to have power all winter. They would need to get more batteries, but that wasn't a big deal; they just needed to find some sort of store that sold RV's or camping gear or something, in which someone would need a large, rechargeable battery. Most middle-sized towns had such a store. They would also need some paint…

That night everyone lay sprawled out across a number of blankets Saya had placed on the living room floor. Except Kyo, who sat against the wall next to the fireplace, occasionally glancing outside to see if there was anything out there. He had said he would leave again, but with their sudden flight and remote location, he didn't feel any sudden urge to flee. His sense of somehow belonging seemed to overshadow his doubt.


	57. Chapter 57

Chapter Fifty-Seven

The next day Kyo and Ichiro drove further west into the next town that was also deserted. It was far larger than the two previous towns, and it therefore had an outdoors store that sold batteries and a couple of paint stores. A couple of hours and dozens of trips later, the two had procured enough supplies to last a few days.

As Saya and Juri continued to clean and dust, Kyo and Ichiro worked on the porches, fixing windows and screens. The next few days went on in much the same fashion, only once everything was fixed and clean, the painting began. Kyo had never seen such a mess. Hotaro and Kentaro decided to paint each other instead of the walls, and Mahiro and Kazemichi had covered the living room with a mural of tic-tac-toe games and poorly drawn flowers and animals. It would all have to be redone. But it wasn't like they didn't have the time. Finally, as things were starting to come together, a strange thing happened; a man was seen walking toward the house from the edge of the woods.

Kyo would have grabbed a gun and told everyone else except Ichiro to go inside, that is, if he hadn't been preoccupied trying to get Hotaro and Kentaro to take a bath. As it was, everyone else was outside while he was in the house with the terrible twins (well, they weren't really blood related, thank God for Mahiro and Kazemichi as we've pointed out before, but they definitely acted like they had the same DNA sequence an awful lot of the time). The young man stepped up to the back porch, where everyone was sitting, taking off his dirty straw hat in the setting sun and putting in against his chest as Ichiro stood up on the deck and took a few paces toward the railing.

"Good evening, sir." Had Kyo been there, he would have immediately disliked him.

"Good evening," Ichiro answered, with a dry tone and a concerned face. But his strained expression could easily have been blamed on his looking into the western sky, where the sun's last bright rays shone, in order to see the man.

"I'm traveling through the area, I think you understand, and I was wondering if you could spare a little food, just for dinner; I'm running a little low on preserves." Ichiro didn't know exactly what to think of him. He knew he had gotten lucky when it came to taking in Kyo, and this man seemed to be lying on the niceties a little too much to be genuine. In the end, Ichiro's good-natured belief in the righteousness of humanity and all that jazz won out, and Ichiro welcomed him into the house, Juri following closely behind. Saya was nervous immediately and wanted Kyo to be nearby for whatever was going to pass, but of course, being a ridiculous girl who was trying to make her object of affection not run away from her over-active need for him, which she wasn't actually consciously aware of at the time, she didn't do anything to inform Kyo of their current situation.

When Kyo finally did come down from upstairs with a twin under each arm, every muscle immediately tensed up when he heard the stranger. Indeed, because everyone was sitting at the kitchen table, Kyo could hear the man before he saw him.

"No, I'm just wandering, hoping to find a town where I can settle, but so far every single one has either been completely deserted or its citizens have been too suspicious and paranoid to let me stay."

"That must be a hard journey on foot," Kyo heard Ichiro say.

"It's not bad. I can stay off the roads that way. I heard there were armies marching around some of the surrounding areas." Kyo whispered to the twins to go play in the room they shared with Kazemichi (someone had to stay with them in the night, and it sure as hell wasn't going to be Ichiro or Saya, who had already put up with enough of Hotaro's antics. This way, Juri could claim that it was really supposed to be brotherly bonding, and she could bribe the twins to tell her if Kazemichi was in Mahiro's room late at night. She was very good at killing two birds with one stone…). Kyo walked down the stairs. Ichiro would know why Kyo had told him to leave the town now, but he still wouldn't know exactly how he was sure it was happening.

"Kyo, come sit down," Juri called to him as Kyo came out from behind a counter into the bright kitchen light. He didn't exactly look thrilled to see the stranger; indeed, if the man was wise, he would have taken off at a full run (though that wouldn't have saved him) when he saw Kyo's scowl beneath his sunglasses, hands pushed down into the front pockets of his jeans. Kyo pulled up a chair next to Saya, who became unnerved at his closeness.

"This is Hideyoshi, Kyo," Ichiro introduced the man next to him. "We've asked him to stay a few days." Kyo was suspicious and made it known through his facial expression. The room darkened considerably, and not just because the sun had chosen this exact moment to disappear.

"Well, we have no more beds, but there is a couch in a small sitting room; you're welcome to it if you like," Juri said cheerfully, trying to apparently make up for the gloom that just descended onto the kitchen. Something crashed upstairs. Saya got up, not looking at anyone as she left the table silently. Kyo got up and followed, hoping he could squeeze some information out of her. He was quite pissed she hadn't come for him the moment the stranger, whatever the hell his name was, had arrived.


	58. Chapter 58

Sorry it has been so long since I last posted---school takes up a lot of time, but now that winter break has rolled around, I think I might even be able to finish the story in the next month or so. Thank you FlowerGirl and QtButterflyGirl, my two readers, for your encouragement and patience. This is for you guys… Merry Christmas (if you celebrate it!)

Chapter Fifty-Eight

Kentaro and Hotaro had been playing tag inside their room, bouncing off their beds and whatnot when one of them had run into a lamp and knocked it down. It had broken the bulb, but that was easy to fix. After the turmoil was over, Saya and Kyo went into their room to talk. Kyo was still under the impression that he could leave at any moment, trying to ignore the fact that he had been living with these people for over a month now. When he had reminded everyone that he would most likely be leaving as soon as they were on their feet in their new home, Saya had offered to him, in private, to share her room. It was fairly large, with a queen sized bed, a fireplace, and two big comfy armchairs and a small coffee table. There was a big lamp in the corner to augment what little light was in the room when the sun wasn't shining through its large windows. Because it was located at the upstairs corner of the house, right across from the stairway, two sides of the room had windows, one facing west and the other facing south. The bed was pushed into this outside corner, with two windows overlooking the front and left side of the bed. As before, Saya slept against the window/wall side, and Kyo, as if protecting her in her sleep, slept on the outside, facing the open room. The bathroom was the only other room they shared a wall with, so chances were, unless someone was standing outside their door, no one could hear them.

"Who the fuck is that?"

"Some wanderer."

"Why is he here?" Kyo asked even more heatedly.  
"I don't know, he's wandering." Kyo was even more pissed now due to that kind of slap in the face answer.

"How long do you think he'll stay?" Kyo said, more calmly.

"I don't know," Saya replied quietly, sitting on the edge of the bed, looking at the ground. Kyo was getting better at reading the girls expressions. She was worried, and not in a good way.

"Why didn't you get me?" Kyo looked at her as he said it, standing only a few feet away. He didn't say it angrily, but he could see that she was upset by the question. Something had obviously caused her to ignore her instinct to get him, but what that was, Kyo had no idea. "Don't leave the room tonight." At that, Kyo turned around and walked out the door, closing it behind him rather quietly, which surprised Saya; given what mood he was in, she expected he would have slammed it shut in her face. She listened for footsteps, but heard none.

-

Kyo sat at the top of the stairs that night. Concealed in the shadows next to him was a baseball bat that had been found in a spare room earlier. It was a good thing that the stranger stayed in his room.


	59. Chapter 59

Chapter Fifty-Nine

Ichiro and Kyo had started to move their attention from home improvement to farming. They were clearing a large portion of the area around the house of rocks and large weeds in order to prepare for the next spring when they (which didn't include Kyo as long as he made a conscious effort to remember that he was leaving soon) could put in a large number of vegetables and fruit trees. They would have grown a winter garden if they could have, but the elevation was too high; this winter they would have a lot of snow. Juri had brought some seeds with her from home for next fall, so they would be able to have at least one year (hopefully) of food. Besides that, Ichiro had brought a few selections from his massive collection of books from his home (who knew that the walls of his spare-parts/living room also doubled as a library?) so that they could hopefully figure out how to collect seeds from the plants they grew next year to replant them in the following season. The stranger, Hideyoshi, decided he would help them in their endeavors to try to make up for his unexpected intrusion into their lives.

-

Kyo immediately didn't like the man. He was just too friendly. He was disgustingly kind to both Saya and Juri and acted like he was everyone's favorite relative come for a visit. But as far as Kyo could tell, he was the only one who was suspicious of the man. But the thing that truly crawled under his skin was Saya's reaction to him; instead of fearing or ignoring him like how she had treated Kyo when they first met (she still treated him that way more often than not), to this man she would smile and even giggle. Granted, Kyo had only spent a few weeks with these people, but he had never heard of her opening up to anyone period. Not that he would ever admit that it bothered him.

-

Truthfully, even Juri was impressed at how little Saya feared the man. Towards the end of breakfast, she had even smiled! She wasn't sure when was the last time the girl had genuinely smiled. Juri was dying to speak to Ichiro; she wanted to make sure she wasn't the only one who had seen Kyo's eyes slightly widen behind those dark glasses of his.

-

Ichiro still wasn't fully confident of the man's intentions, but he was willing to give him a chance, and right now he wasn't regretting it. The man had manners and was doing fairly tough labor without complaining. Not that Kyo complained or anything in comparison; it was just that Kyo never said anything-- good, bad or otherwise-- and it was nice to have a reassuring person around to help in the day's activities. Still, no one worked as hard as Kyo, especially today. Ichiro couldn't blame him. It seemed as though he was working even harder than usual just so that he could avoid all contact with the stranger. Ichiro thought he understood too; if he was Kyo, and he had just seen his object of affection flirt with a stranger (well, a smile was more affection than most people got from her, including Kyo), he would be pretty pissed too.

-

As the day wore on, Saya began to feel more and more ill-at-ease. At breakfast she had found the stranger to be polite and charming, and she hadn't tried to conceal it. She found it comforting to be able to express her emotions; she had decided that since it was only the eight of them living together from now on, she had little to fear since they all knew how strange she was and they seemed to love her anyway (except for Kyo, who seemed to express a mild, indifferent acceptance of her presence), and so she should try to open up. But she could feel that everyone was somehow treating her differently after this morning. Had she made a fool of herself? Was something on her face? Did she forget to put on a major item of clothing? She wasn't sure exactly what was wrong, but she knew something was amiss when, at lunch, Hideyoshi came to gather the food she brought out for them with Ichiro, but Kyo continued to work. In fact, Kyo didn't eat at all that day.

-

At dinner things were pleasant enough. Kyo had waited for everyone to shower before him, and so he showered during the meal as opposed to eating once again, but everyone tried to dismiss his attitude as mere exhaustion and a desire to be clean after such long hours in the heat. Hideyoshi was once again very pleasant to be around, and Saya could tell that everyone seemed to enjoy his company.

Hideyoshi told them stories of his travels, and of his life before the war (he wasn't much older than Saya, so there wasn't exactly anything exciting to say, but it was pleasant). It was a nice evening as everyone went around the table introducing themselves more in-depth.

Juri was taken aback by Saya's continued interest in Hideyoshi. She continued with her demure smiles and short, but kind, comments. It seemed that the room was lighter, though she wasn't sure if it was due to Saya's new-found openness or the lack of Kyo's dark presence.


	60. Chapter 60

So as I was writing this story, I dated the chapters to remember when I wrote them, and let me tell you, I am so slow at editing that I actually wrote this chapter July 16th! To think, it only took me exactly 30 days to write the entire story up until this point, but it has taken me six months to post it! But don't worry, there's still at least thirty chapters left in the story (at least that's how many I've written so far after this one!)

Chapter Sixty

It was a dark night. The moon didn't shine, but instead left a hole in the sky where it sat and looked down. Its other half was receiving all the sun's warmth tonight.

Kyo sat on the porch looking out over the stillness. Nothing moved. No trees. No birds. There was a slightly distant sound of rushing water from the stream that ran through the woods to the right of where the man sat on the deck in the dark. Everyone had gone to bed; even the boys were sleeping right now.

He had never seen a night so peaceful, and instead of fearing what could possibly be lurking out beyond the hills, creeping ever closer, he was dreading the snake that had slithered its way into the house. Or at least that was what he thought of the man. Everyone else seemed just smitten with the Hideyoshi character. So far nothing bad had happened, so Kyo was willing to let his suspicions slide to the back of his mind for now, but that didn't mean he wasn't aware of every move that man made.

After his shower, Kyo had stood at the top of the stairway in the shadows listening. Occasionally he stole views of the dinning table, just enough to see everyone's expressions. Saya had looked happier than he had ever seen her, and not just for a moment, but all day long. Her happiness seemed to multiply as the minutes she spent with Hideyoshi increased.

Kyo interlaced his fingers out in front of him, his elbows on his knees as he raised his face to look back out towards the mountains on the horizon. He wasn't wearing his sunglasses-- he felt no need to conceal who he was from whoever he might meet tonight.


	61. Chapter 61

Chapter Sixty-One

Saya wasn't a huge fan of juice from concentrate; she loved fresh-squeezed juice of every kind, but especially orange juice. Thus, as she stood by the kitchen sink the next morning stirring a large pitcher of lemonade from concentrate, her mood soured even more. Kyo had never come to bed last night, and she knew he wasn't sleeping anywhere else, so he must be going on roughly 56 hours without any real sleep, even though no one else could probably tell. She added more sugar after tasting a spoonful of the stuff. It wasn't unusual for the man to not sleep in her bedroom every night, but he had never stayed away for a full two nights in a row. Not that there was really anything to miss. They never talked, let alone touched, in bed (not that they did any other time either), but it had become the norm to be near him while she slept, and it felt strange when he was absent. She took another sip. She figured it would taste better when it was cold, so she gave up and placed the large glass pitcher in the refrigerator and moved on to making sandwiches for lunch. Roast Beef. Again. The kids had bumped into a few scraggly cows in the forest a few days after arriving and it was decided that since they had no brand and didn't look particularly fat or well groomed that they were probably strays from an old abandoned ranch. There weren't many second thoughts about butchering one and taking a few others to keep near the house. The kids helped look after the animals.

Saya hadn't watched Kyo and Ichiro butcher the cow, but she had heard stories, ones that she had later wished she hadn't heard. Apparently Kyo did most of the work, accurately and efficiently making smaller chunks of meat products from a once large, living thing. It frightened Saya a little, to know he knew how to kill an animal and then take it apart as coldly as if he were dismantling a radio. But right now that thought didn't keep her from missing him.

True, she had the affections of the new stranger, but he was not Kyo. His arrival coincided with her new desire to open up to everyone, especially Kyo, and she was ecstatic for the opportunity to try and show everyone she was trying to change, but it wasn't working. Instead of Kyo talking to her more, or at least spending more time around her in the mornings and evenings when no one was working, now he wouldn't even eat or sleep while she was near. It hurt deeply to know that he would go to such lengths as to stop all functions necessary for life in order to avoid her presence.

She finished the sandwiches and took the lemonade out of the fridge. She was pouring the now colder substance into three glasses when Juri walked into the kitchen, disrupting her internal rant of how much she missed Kyo.

"Are you almost done? I was going to help you with that!"

"You can take it out to them," Saya replied as she turned to place the pitcher back into the refrigerator. She was wearing a light weight dress that had fairly long sleeves considering the temperature outside, but instead of a bun, she had her hair braided into two pigtails, each starting just behind her ears. Juri hadn't the slightest clue why Saya had decided to wear her hair like that today; it made her look Mahiro's age. Juri continued to study the unhappy girl's vacant expression as she tied an apron around her back.

"No, I think you should. They only eat on the porch, its not like you have to walk far. Plus, you made breakfast and lunch, so you can take a break while I handle dinner." Juri could see the unhappiness in Saya's eyes. She clearly did not want to go outside and see Kyo. Or Hideyoshi. Or possibly both. Saya sucked it up and took the three glasses of lemonade into her hands, her fingers grasping the triangle of condensing glasses as she walked towards the front door. She returned a moment later for the plate of sandwiches. Juri smiled at Saya's back as the clearly miserable girl walked out the front door a second time to announce lunch.


	62. Chapter 62

Chapter Sixty-Two

Saya walked over to the edge of the porch after setting the plate of sandwiches down onto a small deck table meant for holding cocktails. She waited for Ichiro, who was out in the field, to be facing her and then yelled out to him. As she leaned against the railing of the porch, he looked up and waved at her. She waved back, then cupped her hands and yelled out "lunch." Ichiro turned to the other two men, who were farther away, and repeated her call. Hideyoshi stopped shoveling, but Kyo continued. Ichiro didn't try again. Saya stood on the deck, watching the scene unfold. Hideyoshi and Ichiro walked towards her, then Hideyoshi began to jog a little, to catch up with Ichiro. Surly Kyo saw them out of the corner of his eye, but he made no sign in either his movement or voice that would have displayed awareness. As Ichiro reached the shade of the deck with Hideyoshi only feet behind him, he looked up at Saya, then followed her gaze.

"He's been working since before I even came down to breakfast and I don't think he's going to stop anytime soon." Saya continued to look out at Kyo in the distance. The air above the ground shimmered even though there was only dirt. It must have been very hot. She turned to see the other two beginning to eat.

"These are very good sandwiches miss Saya, thank you very much," but she did not hear Hideyoshi. She grabbed the glass of lemonade that had been left alone on the little table and stormed off. Ichiro figured she was going inside to fume all afternoon, never admitting to anyone why she was so flustered and upset, but was greatly taken aback when, instead, she turned to the left, and walked down the stairs. He stopped eating and watched her back as she walked stiffly and quickly toward Kyo out in the sun.

-

Saya had had enough of the cold treatment. She could handle it if there was something actually wrong, but she had done nothing, and now he was going to make himself sick. If she hadn't have been so angry, she might have found the whole situation funny; I mean, here was a man who claimed to not care about anything, and yet he was so infuriated over the actions of a single girl that he had forsaken food, drink and sleep. She reached Kyo in record time, and stood in front of him as he continued to shovel. She didn't move an inch for several seconds, holding the glass slightly out towards him. Eventually he straightened his back and looked down at her. She merely returned his gaze and held the glass out even farther.

"You're going to hurt yourself."  
"What do you care?"

"You're not sleeping or eating."

"I'm amazed you've noticed." All of Kyo's statements were said with the usual thick sarcasm with hints of anger and amusement. They continued to stare at each other, Saya's arm holding the glass out so far now that it practically hit Kyo's chest.

"You need to drink something." Kyo removed his sunglasses just to give her a look of 'who the fuck do you think you are.' "You think that scares me?" was her reply to the removal of his glasses, "I've seen you're eyes before." Kyo smirked. He took the glass and drank, never once looking away from Saya. When the glass was empty, he spoke again.

"So why doesn't your boyfriend get service like this?" Saya looked thoroughly confused.

"What?..." Kyo practically laughed in her face. He walked right past her, glass in one hand, dark glasses and shovel in the other. Saya turned around just in time to watch him fumble around trying to put his sunglasses back on while still carrying the two other objects. She stood speechless in the middle of the field the entire time it took him to walk into the house, and then a few minutes more after that.


	63. Chapter 63

Yeah, yeah, so I've twisted the cycles of the moon a little in these chapters—Please don't harass me, I have had enough physics to know that the new moon is present during the day and is not in the sky during night at all and that a waxing cresent moon would not be setting in the morning either-but its called a metaphor so go with it please!

Chapter Sixty-Three

No one had said anything to Saya after her little conversation with Kyo. Then again, no one had heard their little exchange. She sat on the swinging wooden loveseat on the back porch that afternoon, thinking about Kyo's comment.

Her boyfriend? Surly he meant Hideyoshi, but she wasn't sure exactly why. They most certainly weren't dating. She wasn't even sure she fully liked or trusted the man. Yet. She came to the conclusion that Kyo was being immature as she stomped up the stairs to her room. Upon opening the door, she immediately saw a worn-out Kyo sprawled across the queen-sized bed, fast asleep. Everything forgotten in that moment, Saya closed the door and smiled to herself as she walked back down the stairs and into the kitchen to see what Mahiro and Kazemichi were up to.

-

Kyo slept all that evening and well into the night. He hadn't meant to spend that much time in bed, but that's what sleep deprivation will do to you. The sliver of moon was sinking steadily towards the western horizon when he woke up to find Saya sleeping next to him. He must have been tired to have not even been disturbed by her getting into bed.

And that was that. Neither made another comment about the stranger for some days. Not that it was necessary to have closure on the issue. They weren't a married, engaged, or even dating. They shared a bed. That was about it. But just because you make silent compromises for the supposed greater good doesn't mean that the problem simply disappears.


	64. Chapter 64

Lots of notes recently! All I have to say this time is that the song mentioned in this chapter that is playing in the kitchen is "If You were Here" by the Thompson Twins. If you like this song, please also listen to "Hold Me Now" also by them. They're two classic '80's songs, if you like the '80's.

Chapter Sixty-Four

Hideyoshi and Kyo were working out in the fields; Ichiro was out there as well, but he was out of earshot of idle conversation.

"So, you and Saya, you're a couple aren't you?" Hideyoshi asked kindly, smiling.

"Couple of what?" was Kyo's rough reply. He definitely did not like this man.

"Well, you're in love with each other, aren't you?" Kyo was blown away by how open this man was.

"Who said that?" Kyo remarked, more as a statement rather than a question.

"Well, I don't mean to be forward, but you share a room, don't you? One that has only one bed?"

"So you have to be married in order to live together? You better tell Juri before you leave, otherwise she and I are in trouble. Kazemichi and Mahiro should be delighted. I would think Kentaro and Hotaro would be equally delighted to be stuck together for forever." Kyo thought seriously about his comment, which dripped with sarcasm, and figured that Hotaro and Kentaro probably really wouldn't mind being married; as far as Kyo could tell, they were made for each other.

"That's not what I meant, I just thought, you know, that there would be some feelings between two people who shared such close quarters." Kyo made a 'tch' sound, which was fully capable of expressing just how he felt despite being such a small, and not real, word. "So your relationship is just physical?"

Where in the world did this man get off questioning Kyo about things he had no right to know? Kyo didn't even answer the question; he yelled to Ichiro he was going inside for a break. Ichiro gave him a wave of approval.

-

Inside it was cool; autumn was definitely coming. Soon, they would have to start making runs down to the valley to stock up on food and necessities for winter--it just wouldn't do to have a snow storm or something come through and strand them here with nothing for the rest of their short, pathetic lives, for they certainly wouldn't last long if they didn't get those supplies. Plus, everyone needed some warm clothes.

Saya and Juri were working in the kitchen, making dinner. Mahiro and Kazemichi were attempting to get their siblings to read, but the younger boys were much more delighted with the good weather outside. A CD player was on, playing quietly. It was a happy enough song, in a melancholy sort of way, and fit today's mood well. The singer crooned on, "_If you were here, I could deceive you, and if you here, you would believe_…"

"You want something to drink?" Juri asked. Kyo did a head lift/nod thing in return that indicated a 'yes.' She handed him a glass of water. "Is it hot out there?"

"Yeah, should be nice this evening though." Kyo finished off the glass, glad to be in the shade for a while, and away from that moron. He turned his head slightly to look at Saya, whom Hideyoshi had mistakenly thought Kyo was in love with, as he leaned against the counter. She had seemed happier since they had moved out here. She was always cleaning or cooking, teaching, or just walking about. And music was always on. He figured she enjoyed the isolation. He couldn't blame her, it was a good location.

"Thanks." He put the glass down and walked back out to the fields to continue working for another couple hours. They had to clear areas large enough to be able to plant easily in the spring.

'Shit, now I'm thinking ahead by eight or nine months!' Kyo wasn't exactly pleased that he had decided to travel with them to their new home, but he was going that direction anyway. And now? He was roped in again, working for Ichiro, spending his evenings and mornings as a part of very dysfunctional family. Anyone else would have been thrilled at the prospect.


	65. Chapter 65

Chapter Sixty-Five

Later that evening, Saya and Hideyoshi sat in the hanging bench on the western porch, watching the sunset and keeping up a fairly pleasant, albeit intermittent, conversation. Kyo sat nearby on the stairs leading down into the grassy area behind the house where Hotaro and Kentaro were currently wrestling each other in the dirt (they had to pick the one spot in the yard where it was the filthiest), and Mahiro and Kazemichi sat looking off into the distance as well. Kyo's stomach was starting to turn, not from nervousness, or nausea, but from an emotion closer to jealousy. Saya treated Hideyoshi so amiably, talking to him more than she had spoken to Kyo after knowing him for only a week. He would be lying if he said he wasn't pissed, which means that he definitely would have lied if someone had asked him how he felt.

"I think the weather will be nice tomorrow too. It doesn't appear to be warming up or cooling down at all," Hideyoshi said so pleasantly Kyo thought he would throw up right there.

"I hope so, this weather is perfect." Kyo wanted Ichiro and Juri to come out here just so he didn't have to listen to this endless heap of drivel, but no luck there. They were probably off somewhere trying to make babies of their own.

'Jesus, please don't let it be another Hotaro or Kentaro.' Kyo would have wondered if fallout had reached their water supply, except he knew that the 'Taros (it was faster to refer to the moron twins as a collective 'taro) were conceived before any bombs had been dropped. 'Well, I suppose there still could have been something in the water supply that was isolated only in that town.'

"That would be an excellent idea!" Kyo had been so lost in his own thoughts that he had missed what nonsensical topic was currently under debate, by which he meant pure agreement, by Hideyoshi and Saya. He had had enough.

Kyo stood up and walked into the house without a word to either person sitting on the bench.

-

Kyo was laying on the bed after showering, eyes closed, when Saya walked into the room.

"Have fun pleasantly conversing with Yoshi?" Kyo loved to call him that in reference to the dumb dinosaur creature in the video game Super Mario Bros. that the 'Taros loved to play. He figured it fit perfectly since he always seemed so idiotically happy, but even he had to admit it was slightly below the belt.

"Yes," Saya answered with not a little amount of anger right back at him. "Why do you dislike him?" She asked, anger gone.

"There's something about him, watch yourself."

"That's rich! Where do you get off telling me what to do?" He had never heard Saya raise her voice before.

"I'm not telling, I'm warning, there is a difference you know!" he replied, raising his voice right back.

"What makes you think I care?"

"Nothing, but I figured you just might value my opinion a little more, since I think I have slightly more experience in the realm of creepy men!"

"And how am I supposed to know that, YOU NEVER TELL ME ANYTHING!!!"

"And you think you're so entitled to know?!?" Kyo had never fought with anyone like this; he felt like Hotaro, he was acting so childishly.

"Maybe! I do sleep in your bed after all!" Kyo figured Saya would have begun to refer to it as their bed, why hadn't she described their situation as sharing? He was too angry now to care what he was saying.

"And who asked you to?" Saya looked hurt. It was what he wanted, and he immediately regretted it. Saya practically ran to the door, slamming it shut behind her. Kyo could hear her footsteps as she flew down the stairs. He thought he heard a screen door snap shut.

It was getting dark. He really wasn't one-hundred-percent positive that no one was around here, so it made him slightly uncomfortable that she had just run outside. As he walked out of their room, he saw Hideyoshi's silhouette move across the living room down stairs, presumably following Saya outside. Kyo came very close to saying 'fuck it,' and letting Yoshi solace her, but his reservations about the man's intentions were still set firmly in place. He couldn't let her be in danger of both an unknown and probably a far worse known danger.

'Damn that charismatic bastard!' Kyo thought as he walked outside after the two of them. He had a feeling he wasn't going to get any rest tonight.


	66. Chapter 66

Chapter Sixty-Six

It wasn't difficult for Kyo to follow the two of them; they weren't exactly the two most stealthy individuals in the world. He quickly approached the stream that he and the kids had found earlier, and found Saya sitting on a large rock near its shore. Hideyoshi was of course sitting next to her. Kyo stayed in the underbrush, peering at them from behind a tree. He could make out their conversation from there.

"Why do you let him anger you like that? He shouldn't yell at you."

"I was the one who raised my voice first." Kyo was glad to hear her admit the truth. She wasn't a liar.

"But still, why do accept that torment?" Kyo was becoming gradually more and more pissed while listening to this guy. "Unless, you love him. Is that it?" Kyo, who had Hideyoshi between him and Saya, could see clearly the look that Saya shot him. She was completely caught off guard, complete and utter shock displayed on every feature. Kyo was surprised a little at the comment too, but wasn't surprised by her reaction; the thought of her loving him probably scared her to death. She looked away, still red.

"I didn't know it was so obvious." Kyo could barely make out the words, but it was now his turn to have his jaw drop. Metaphorically, that is. His eyes did widen slightly however.

"You shouldn't spend your life longing for someone who doesn't want you, its not healthy, nor does it make you happy." Hideyoshi turned to look at Saya. Kyo couldn't see the look he gave her, but he was sure it was oozing with fake charm.

"There is more to life than love. It's not the only thing to live for. I won't die if he never loves me back. I don't think I even expect him to." Saya said it sadly, but Kyo could tell she was firm in her resolve.

"Come on now, you know that's no way to live," Hideyoshi whispered softly, close to Saya's face as his hand lifted her chin to make her look him in the eye. Kyo couldn't see what was going on, until he saw Hideyoshi move in, and Saya's eyes practically bulge out of her face. Hideyoshi was kissing her! It practically took all his strength to keep himself from decking the man right then and there, but they didn't know he was there, and he was curious to see Saya's reaction after making a face like that. He didn't have to wait long.

Saya pushed Hideyoshi onto the ground, standing up and wiping her mouth.

"I never said I wanted that!"

"I was trying to cheer you up!"

"Who said I wanted to be cheered?" Saya's voice was starting to rise frantically.

"Come on, you don't want to love Kyo forever, do you? Why not take a chance on me?"

"Because…" Even Kyo was hanging on her words, waiting for her retort. "Because…it's not…I don't…" Kyo was starting to worry that Hideyoshi would take advantage of her sudden loss of words.

"I don't love you." Saya turned away and walked back towards the house, leaving both men standing in the dark. Kyo did not come out even as Hideyoshi followed her back to bed only a few minutes after she left.

-

When Saya reached her room, Kyo was not inside as she had expected him to be. She suddenly felt very afraid after what had just happened at the creek.

'What if he comes after me in the night? Kyo won't be here this time to help me…' She couldn't lock the door, because she didn't want to lock Kyo out, but she at least took a little solace in the fact that Hideyoshi probably thought Kyo was inside with her. Certainly if anyone could deter a man from his temptations, Kyo could. If one could only motivate him to respond.


	67. Chapter 67

Chapter Sixty-Seven

Even before she opened her eyes, and without reaching out, she knew Kyo still wasn't home. The bed was cold, and she could feel no tension in the mattress due to his weight. She immediately became fully conscious upon this apprehension, and jumped out of bed, putting on a sweater as she ran downstairs, fearing the worst. She had never thought that she would have the power to drive him away but just maybe she had…

As she ran out the bedroom door, she was abruptly halted when she ran into a medium sized wall in her way. She looked up into bright red eyes.

Saya backed away, looking down at the floor. Nether said anything, but Saya could tell he was infuriated for some reason or another, the most likely of which was roughly 5'4" with curly blonde hair and green eyes and had jut run straight into him with all her force. He walked past her into the bedroom, took off his shoes and got into bed, still fully clothed. Saya thought he looked cold, but she did nothing so foolish as to touch him. It was light outside already; she figured she might as well start making breakfast.

She closed all the blinds in the room for him, since she knew the sunlight would keep him awake. Then she left the room, closing the door behind her with the smallest of sounds as it clicked shut. She then walked gently down the stairs into the kitchen whose view into the east would prove to hold a glorious sunrise.


	68. Chapter 68

Chapter Sixty-Eight

Hodeyoshi had acted respectable as usual that morning at breakfast, albeit, he was quieter. Saya was glad he had said nothing.

It was much later in the day, while Saya and Juri were making dinner, when Saya decided to breech the subject with Juri, speaking softly because Kyo had not come down from their room yet.

"What's it like to be in love?"

"Why do you ask?" Juri laughed as she questioned Saya, who looked very stressed.

"I was just curious."

"Don't tell me its Hideyoshi!" Juri took a moment to laugh at Saya at the girl's expense once more before moving on.

"No, that's not it. It couldn't be." Juri laughed a little more. "So you're finally admitting your feelings for Kyo?" Juri smiled so widely it made Saya nervous as it reminded her of some rabid meat eating dog who had decided it was going to have fun torturing its prey before bringing it down for the kill. That and Juri was speaking fairly loudly, and this was rapidly becoming one conversation Saya did not want Kyo, or anyone else for that matter, to overhear. Juri sobered up, stopped what she was doing, and watched Saya nervously clean plates. "I don't know what I can tell you. You just know I suppose, or at least hope you'll know, sometimes its not so easy to tell." Oh yeah, that made Saya feel a lot better. "Someone like you might figure it out fairly soon; its an unusual feeling, and not one I think you could easily block out. Now, someone like Kyo, on the other hand, I don't think that boy has one ounce of emotion sometimes. He is too good at tuning out the world. He might be able to be in love his entire life and never realize it."

-

Kyo wanted to leave more than ever. He wanted to get away from them all; Hideyoshi, the moron twins, the lovebirds, the other lovebirds. He wanted to get away from Saya. And yet he stayed in his room, on his side of the bed, appearing to look out the window. In reality, he was staring at where Saya would be, had she been sleeping next to him.

He had thought and thought, and could not come up with any solution, let alone what he should say in the meantime. He knew Saya didn't know he had heard her refuse Hideyoshi last night, and admit to…Kyo still couldn't get used to the idea, but the point was that even though she didn't know he knew, it didn't ease his own distress.

So he laid in bed for hours even after he had woken up, trying to keep from beating the life out of Hideyoshi in front of anyone who was too young to view such a thing, which was probably anyone except Kyo and Ichiro in the long run.

-

"So what are you going to do?"

"Nothing."

"You can't do nothing. You know he's planning on leaving soon, aren't you going to tell him before he goes? At least see if maybe he wants to stay after that?"

"We don't know anything about him! He could be on a trip to save the world for all we know, and we're just delaying his journey!"

"Kyo? Save the World?" Juri said flatly. Saya already knew it was a stupid conjecture, so she didn't need it rubbed in. "Honey, I think the boy would much rather see this place burn to the ground than lift a finger to save it."

"You know that's not true!"

"What's not true?" Ichiro walked in the front door, completely filthy. No one answered him, not that he was surprised. It wasn't the first time he had asked a woman a question and she had pretended he didn't exist. "Well, anyway, I'm going up stairs to take a shower. Just call when dinner's ready." He didn't say anything about Kyo still being in his room. The girls continued to say nothing until they heard the shower turn on.

"All I can say is that you'll never know unless you tell him, because he's not the kind who's going to be able to see this one coming." Saya knew she was right, but didn't want to admit it.


	69. Chapter 69

Chapter Sixty-Nine

Kyo came down to eat that night, hiding behind his sunglasses the entire time. He was a gloomy shade at the end of the table, haunting the group more than gracing it. When dinner was over, he took a shower. He was usually the last one to shower every day. Saya was in bed when he came back into the room, wearing only a towel. Not that it mattered; Saya was facing the window, so she couldn't see his nakedness as he put on boxers. Kyo turned off the lamp in the corner of the room before getting into bed. Both felt very awkward and uncomfortable.


	70. Chapter 70

Chapter Seventy

The next day, both Saya and Kyo were silent once more. Kyo still hid behind his glasses, trying to do anything outside that made him appear to be busy, and Saya left him alone. She figured he was mad about something other than their argument; she knew that it couldn't have upset him this much, but she still did not suspect that he had overheard her two nights ago, and so she continued to think of his confusion as anger. For it really was confusion that he felt, though it manifested itself as resentment and rage. Saya was glad that Hideyoshi had stayed quiet as well; however, she was unaware of the looks that Kyo constantly shot at him all that morning at breakfast.

And that was that. Both Kyo and Saya made no open show of their affection for each other, yet Saya would admit to it if provoked, and Kyo, though he denied it in speech, obviously cared enough to throw daggers at Hideyoshi with his eyes. Hideyoshi figured Kyo must have known something, but he didn't think that Saya would have told him what happened.

No matter how hard Hideyoshi had thought over the last two days, he just couldn't understand their relationship. He supposed he could understand Saya a little, but she seemed so much like the type that needed someone to protect and care for her, and while Kyo looked fairly qualified (at least in the physical department), he seemed to lack all capacity to protect anything, considering the fact that he acted as though he valued nothing, not even his own life, enough to really protect it. Hideyoshi knew that Saya must truly care for Kyo to turn down someone who was openly warm and gentle towards her. And that just made it sting all the worse.


	71. Chapter 71

Ok, so the songs mentioned in this chapter are "Specialist" by Interpol (sorry if you don't like them, but this is my story!) and "Blood Bleeds" by The Helio Sequence.

Chapter Seventy-One

As the tension continued to build between the three youths, the weather itself began to warm up, promising an Indian summer. The 'Taros were delighted with the idea of being able to swim and run outdoors for a few more precious days or weeks, but for Saya it meant only sleepless nights.

She did no meanial labor like Ichiro and the others, so when she lay down to sleep after cooking and cleaning, she wasn't as exhausted as Kyo, who feel asleep with an easy grace, even though she was, indeed, very tired. She blamed the heat for her sudden development of insomnia, and after the first few sleepless nights, as she began to enter into a stage of complete and pure exhaustion of not only the body but the mind and soul as well, she reached a new low of desperation. She lay in bed one night, listening to her CD player with her headphones on, lying on top of the sheets wearing only her underware and a large, baggy t-shirt. No matter what position she took, she could not cool off. She placed pillows between her legs, behind her neck, over her stomach, and constantly turned them over and switched them about so that they stayed cool against her touch. But eventually she could take it no longer.

"_You make me loose my buttons, oh yeah you make me spit, I don't like my clothes anymore, you take me to New Orleans, yeah, you put me to the test, I know what my heart is for. You reach out for a blanket, I said 'girl, you got something, I love how you wear it'…_" was all that ran through her mind as she sat up in bed. She had had enough of lying in bed and feeling this awful, dull energy that came from being utterly exhausted. It was as if she was running on empty, and was making one last effort to come up with some sort of fuel to get her through. Well, she wasn't going to take it anymore.

She slipped off her head phones as the singer let out the chorus again, "_If I get there early, will it be the right time? Oh heaven is just waiting, so put that hand into mine, If I get too surly will you take that in stride?.._." Saya crawled to the edge of the bed and stepped off the foot of it, avoiding having to manuver her way over the top of Kyo who was sound asleep. Or so she thought.

"Where are you going?" It perforated the air with sarcasm.

"Kitchen." They were now on an 'I'll tell you as much as I want to tell you' basis, and it often resulted in one word replies, if there was any reply at all.

Saya was gone for a matter of minutes, but Kyo took the opportunity to remove her headphones from her CD player to see what it was she had been listening to, but the song had already moved on. The song that played now was ethereal and light, with hushed words. "_In a long time, travel really far…Where am I? Nobody knows me, and I don't know, anyone can, nobody does, somebody should…everyone keeps on talking like they got the answers, what was the question?..." _and it continued on much the same way.

'Great, I know I'm in trouble when music starts to explain how I feel…' Kyo was not in a good mood. He was tired and hot. Life here had gotten to be miserable, and worse than that, perfunctory. Hadn't he left his previous life so that he wouldn't have to wander through a dictated existence? And yet here he was, sitting in a room, living the same life day in and day out, doing the same God damn things with the same God damn people. It had been cute the first couple of weeks, but now it just felt like hell.

"Helio Sequence." Kyo dropped his head from its resting place against the wall where he had been staring at the ceiling to look at Saya who was walking into the bedroom. "It's the name of this band." Kyo didn't say anything, and Saya didn't look at him.

She crawled back onto the bed from it's foot and sat against the side window cross-legged, eating out of bowl that Kyo recognized as the "berry" bowl; it had been used repeatedly the last few days to hold the wild berries that the 'Taros loved to pick. She continued to eat them as Kyo pulled his knees up to his chest. Another song started, and at the sound of the first words, Kyo whispered a quiet "fuck" but it didn't escape Saya.

"What?" she said rather neutrally.

"A love song."

"So, what's wrong with that?"

"Love."  
"Is there something wrong with love?"  
"It's hypocritical."

"What are you talking about?"  
"It's supposed to be this great, all powerful, random emotion? Look around. Juri and Ichiro, Mahiro and Kazemichi, it's convenience. They have no other choices, so they settle for the best, and call it love to disguse what it really is."

"And what is that?"

"Pathological loneliness, how the fuck should I know?"

"You're sick." Saya returned to looking at the berries rather than Kyo, who had resumed staring at the ceiling.

"That's what I'm told."

"Besides, you got a flaw in your plan." Saya said in a deliberate, low voice, as if she had something stuck in her throat. She had stopped eating berries.

"Oh yeah, and what's that?" But Kyo didn't need to ask. He had set up the entire conversation from the beginning. If she wouldn't confess to him of her own free will, he'd break her down and see what came out. He knew the flaw was them. If love was a matter of convenience, then Kyo and Saya were as convenient as it got. Hell, they even already slept in the same bed.

That didn't mean Kyo didn't honestly believe that love was a 'convenient' emotion to exploit, but he did have to admit that convenience couldn't explain it all. Saya would be with Hideyoshi right now if that were true.

"Prove me wrong."

Saya stared straight into his blood red eyes, long and cold.

"But you don't want me to." Saya stared at Kyo a while longer before leaving the room to go back downstairs, and Kyo was left listening to yet another phony love song on the CD player.


	72. Chapter 72

The song mentioned in this chapter is "What I Want" by The Go Find.

Chapter Seventy-Two

It was hot.

He was shoveling.

He was within earshot of Hideyoshi.

But the thing that pissed him off the absolute most, the thing that took the prize, was the fact that he had a God damn love song stuck in his head. Over and over it ran, circulating in his brain, but he refused to stoop so low as to talk to Hideyoshi in order to relieve him of its riduculousness.

"_It's the perfect time to decide to come around, to tell you that I want to be forever in your eyes…_" and so on and so on, meaningless absurdities that no one would ever actually say to anyone else. Why in the world did Saya listen to that stuff? Why couldn't she admit that there was a part of love that was strict convenience?

And then, suddenly and unexpectedly, something snapped.

Who cared if love was convenient? Sure as hell not people who were in love.

He continued shoveling.

He cared if love was convenient. That was the bottom line. He cared.

But why? Why should it matter to him?


	73. Chapter 73

Chapter Seventy-Three

Saya couldn't believe how much she was changing these days. She had actually fought with someone. She had provoked him. She had made him angry. Intentionally. What had happened to her old self? The one who could silently accept all things as they came? What happened to her fear?

She certainly didn't fear Kyo anymore. True, she did fear things he could do, such as carve up large animals to make slabs of meat, fight viciously with strong men and win, his ability to darken a room just by walking into it, and his constant threat to leave, but he himself? His actually person? That didn't seem too scary to her anymore.

She stood in front of the sink, cleaning plates before putting them out to dry, lost in her thoughts.


	74. Chapter 74

Chapter Seventy-Four

The 'Taros were up to their usual stunt. The had found a lizard and after chasing it down and grabbing its tail, which they knew would come off of course, began to throw the abandoned extremity at each other, giggling wildly all the while. Kyo's bath time duty was quickly approaching, but he figured he would give them a few more minutes. One had to admit it was pretty damn funny.

Saya walked out onto the porch and sat down in the hanging swing. She was looking more exhausted than ever. She was developing circles under her eyes and her posture looked as though she was ready to keel over at any minute. Kyo yelled for the 'Taros to come in. He had them obeying his every whim these days. Of course, Kyo was capable of immense cruelty--especially if he has seen you naked while bathing. He found it amusing though that he never used his power for good. His ability to command their attention only served his own needs, not those of Ichiro, Juri, or even Saya-- in fact, he had been behind some of their more annoying and clever stunts recently, like putting fake, soft plastic bugs in the berry bowl. Of course the 'Taros delight wore off when they realized that this meant they couldn't eat the berries that Saya had spilled all over the porch.

-

It had been a very long hour. He had accomplished his deed, but at the expense of his own dryness; indeed, he was soaked from head to foot and even had some soapy residue on the right half of his torso thanks to Kentaro's inability to decipher what body parts were his and which were not. Still, being wet meant feeling cold, and feeling cold was good during this burst of warm weather. He walked into the bedroom. Saya was there.

'Great…' Apparently the limited dialogue between them had expanded to the point where he couldn't even think about Saya with more than one or two words. He walked to the wall opposite the bed and began to remove his wet shirt. He lifted his right arm up over his head and, grabbing the back of his shirt, pulled it up and over his head. He felt eyes on his bare skin. Without turning around, he addressed the one responsible for his invasion of privacy.

"Getting a good look?" It wasn't the first time he had tried this approach, that was sure, but it was something about their current situation that made it all the more infuriating to Saya.

"Who would want to look at you?"

"Any woman in their right mind…and probably a few men, too…" Kyo still had not dignified Saya by turning to face her. Instead, he began to take off his clothes more slowly. He was enjoying making her feel uncomfortable. He was also secretly enjoying the attention. There was no response and Kyo was desperate for one. "But we already know your not included in that group…"

"What the hell does that mean?!?" He heard her get off the bed and walk towards him. He was trying with all his might to conceal his smile. "Aren't you at least going to face me if your going to tell me such awful things?" Her voice had become more meek again. Perhaps she had overcome the insult already? Or perhaps it was affecting her more than he had intended it to… He turned to look at her but, like most things Kyo did, it was done in a violent nature.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Saya was on the verge of crying. In trying to compose his face he must not have chosen a very good expression, but right now he was more concerned with her proximity to him. She seemed so small, so fragile… not at all like him.

And before he could control himself, the man who did nothing out of emotional impulse lifted his hand to move aside her bangs so he could see her face more clearly.

She flinched.

He thought of withdrawing his hand, but noticed that her counter reaction was to lean towards it. She didn't dare lean into it, but she edged closer none the less. She cast her eyes down ward, to study the carpeting on the floor. He could still back out. He could turn on her and laugh it off, and they could both forget that…

He felt a warmth on his stomach. He looked down to see Saya's hand tracing a large and rather ragged scar. When she reached it's end she chose another one and followed its contour as well. And then another's and another's.

Kyo's skin felt cold. It was the first time he had actually felt legitimately cold in weeks. But it didn't feel good. Saya felt good. He closed his eyes, the rest of his body motionless.

"Am I really that damaged?" It was said in such a small voice. Kyo opened his eyes to see Saya staring up at him, forefinger still pointing at his stomach. Kyo lifted the hand he had returned to his side only moments earlier and placed it on the back of her head, making sure she would be inable to to escape even if she wanted to.


	75. Chapter 75

Chapter Seventy-Five

They were barely touching each other. One of Kyo's arms rested beneath the pillow that Saya's head lay on, but the other curled around her waist. Despite the heat, both had managed to sleep fairly well.

When Saya awoke the next day, she knew what had happened. It had not been a dream. It had not been a hallucination. She had slept with Kyo in the physical-action definition of the word. But despite knowing this, most of it was a blur. She remembered feeling caught up in it. She remembered feeling that their kissing and touching had been forceful, but desireable. She remembered being afraid, but feeling the counter emotion of necessity. She had needed to experience what it was like to be with a man, and last night had been as good a time as any. She remembered pain and disliking the actual act of sex, but had enjoyed the vast majority of the other activities associated with it. And of course she liked this. She liked Kyo having both arms around her. She had liked his need of her more than anything else.

She wondered if this was convienience. Had she slept with Kyo because she had wanted to experience sex or because she loved him and wanted to experience it with him? Even worse, did he love her, or did he just want to be physical? What if he acted indifferent? She didn't know if she could handle that. What if he left? She knew she couldn't handle that.


	76. Chapter 76

Chapter Seventy-Six

The previous night's activities had definetly been a complete and total deviation of everything Kyo ethically valued. He did not sleep with women. He did not love people. He didn't get attached to them. He didn't let them get attached to him. But he was certain that he had wanted to do what he had done last night. And what's more, he wanted to do it again.

He woke up alone, but that was to be expected; the two of them almost never waited for the other to wake up. That would just be awkward. He got out of bed and washed. He went downstairs and everything was frightfully normal, except that he found it rather difficult to not think about the things he had done last night when he looked at Saya. She was innocently making toast, and yet in his head, she wasn't being innocent at all, but forceful, assertive, downright rough. He hadn't thought she had the energy, or even the capacity of character, to be physically forceful, but she had grabbed, pushed, pulled, and played more than he had, if that was possible.

He almost let out a smile when he thought of their first few kisses. Of course neither knew how to kiss, so they had started out kissing like children; closed mouth, little pecks of kisses. Once they realized that they could open their mouths, however, was when the trouble began. They went from one extreme to the other in a matter of seconds; from childish pecks to monstrous, gasping attempts to practically eat each others' faces, as if they were some kind of carnivorous beasts that could enjoy the consumption of each other.

Kyo started to feel awkward reflecting on his night-time adventures while the 'Taros stared at him with wide eyes, so he exceused himself to go work.


	77. Chapter 77

Chapter Seventy-Seven

It was starting to cool again. Fall was coming. It was close to dark already when Kyo finally went inside.

The hot water felt good against sore muscles. He watched the dirt wash off in great waves. He thought about the day all those months ago when he had showered with Saya. He had felt it then. The awkwardness. The feeling that his stomach had suddenly rolled over. A strange desire.

He turned off the water, watching the last few bubbles from the soap spin around the drain. It all seemed so simple in the yellow glow of the lights that were fixed in the wall around the bathroom mirror. In this moment, nothing else really mattered.

The heat was making him slightly lightheaded as he wiped condensation from the mirror. Steam billowed up in great clouds. Red eyes stared out at him from amid a body of scars he had spent his life collecting. He had been praised for them often enough, but the way Saya looked at them as if she wished they were nothing more than pen markings done by the 'Taros that could be washed away, it made him feel slightly ashamed. He had never felt ashamed before.

He put on his sunglasses and walked into the room next door.

-

Saya was making the bed. She had placed a blanket over the single sheet so that they wouldn't get cold. She was wearing only a large baggy t-shirt, Kyo noted, as he turned abruptly to the right half of the room where he could change.

It hadn't escaped Saya's attention that Kyo still depended on his sunglasses. She might have become used to seeing him wearing them, but that didn't mean she didn't notice. She slipped between the sheets as Kyo walked over to get into bed. He turned off the light before removing his glasses.

"Kyo…" Kyo was pulling up close behind Saya who had turned to stare at the wall.

"Yeah?" was his belated reply.

"I like your eyes…"

It had taken him off guard. He sure as hell didn't expect any compliments from Saya, she had never said anything about his appearance before, other than to correct the times when the 'Taros had somehow perverted it, so why now? He didn't know what to say, so he said nothing.

"Kyo?"

"Yeah?"

"Why do you wear them?"

"Wear what?" he felt like playing dumb at the moment, since Saya was using her quiet baby-voice talk that always sort of annoyed him. Why did she act like such a child when the answer was so obvious?

"Your sunglasses." She answered quietly.

"If you had red eyes, I'm sure you'd do the same."

"I suppose… but why do you still wear them?" Saya rolled over so she she could look directly into the subjects of their conversation.

"You think I want to exlain them to everyone?"

"There's something to explain?"

'Shit,' Kyo cursed at himself. He should know better than to hint at things he didn't want to talk about. Or anyone to know about, for that matter, because its one thing for everyone to know something and have a general understanding of the necessity of pretense-ignorance, but it's completely different if one has a legitimate secret. When Kyo rolled onto his back and began to stare at the ceiling, Saya knew she wasn't going to get an answer.

"Besides, I think the 'Taros would probably think you were some sort of super hero or something… it could only magnify their hero-worship…" She could tell that no matter what she said on the subject, it wasn't going to change anything. She rolled back onto her other side so that Kyo was at her back again, and waited for sleep to come.


	78. Chapter 78

Chapter Seventy-Eight

The next morning was an unusual mix of pure elation and discomfiture for Kyo. Now he felt awkward about his scars and his eyes. But on the other hand, Hideyoshi announced that he would be 'moving on' as he put it, as if he were some damned cowboy. Kyo didn't even bother to make any sort of sarcastic, pithy retort. As long as the man got the hell away from him, Kyo would be happy as a clam.

The actual moment when Hideyoshi left was a little too much for Kyo. He truly thought the cheesiness of it would make him hurl all over the place. Juri started crying and 'Taros were giving him hugs; Ichiro shook his hand; even Saya embraced him. Kyo just watched from the side of the crowd and gave him nod when Hideyohsi turned to face him. He figured it was enough. He had spared the man's life a number of times after all.

-

Later that night, everyone was sort of depressed and out of it. Kyo didn't say a word, and neither did Saya, who seemed fairly cold. Kyo gave the 'Taros their baths, and their senile behavior took his mind off of everyone else's sympathy toward Hideyoshi. But when they were all done washing Kyo, for that's really what happened, Kyo still wasn't looking forward to facing Saya.

He was filled with as much self-doubt as he had ever experienced in his life, which really wasn't all that much compared to the average person. Would Saya miss Hideyoshi? Would she run out after him, begging him to come back because she really did like him more than Kyo? And why the hell did Kyo care what she did with her God-damn emotions? He had been hanging around Juri too long; all her dramatic love-related nonsense was rubbing off on him.


	79. Chapter 79

Chapter Seventy-Nine

In reality, Saya was not moping or crying or beating her breast, or doing anything else remotely close to any culture's typical mourning protocol. Indeed, she was thinking about Kyo, and what would be the best possible way to get him to pay more attention to her, by which she really meant, what would be the best way to get him to try to be intimate with her again.

Obviously, him seeing her make the bed didn't get him thinking about what he could be doing in it, or how it got to be that messy in the first place, so there was no point in trying that ploy again. Perhaps she could pretend not to sleep? Maybe she should play music…or get something to eat…maybe food would make him think of mouths, and mouths would make him think of lips, which would make him think of… no, Kyo wasn't that complex. Saya was pretty sure that food reminded Kyo of food, mouths of mouths, lips of lips… maybe she should just kiss him first…?

No! That couldn't be it! That would never work! Or at least that was what Saya was trying to convince herself so as to be able to avoid an awkward situation if it all turned out wrong as a sopping wet Kyo came into the room. At this rate, he'd never have to intentionally shower again.

-

Kyo noticed Saya was on edge. She wasn't asleep like she normally was when he came in after playing the role of the human sponge; she just stared out the window, into the darkness. Maybe his worst fears had come true? Maybe she did miss him…

"Kyo…?"

"Yeah?" He tried to answer nonchalantly, but it was hard to smooth over the sudden start he displayed at the sound of her voice.

"Nothing." She sighed.

"Listen, if your gonna mope over Hideyoshi, do it quickly…"

"Mope over Hideyoshi?!? What makes you think that's your business? I never said anything about…"

"Like I don't have eyes. If you miss the guy…"

"Miss him? Who said I miss…"

"Then what's with all the sighs and looks of hopelessness?" Saya blushed at that and looked out the window. Kyo rolled his eyes and went back to changing in his corner of the room.

'What the…?' Kyo thought as two thin, white arms wrapped around him. Considering the color, size, and the fact that his own arms were currently occupied in the body of a t-shirt he was in the middle of putting on, you think his mind would have been a little quicker to deduce that these arms were not his. When the lightbulb did finally turn on over his head, he put the t-shirt on the dresser and placed his hands over Saya's arms. He could feel her hugging him from behind, the side of her face resting against his back. His acceptance of her embrace caused her to squeeze the slightest bit tighter.

-

That night words were spoken, albeit they were spoken quietly and breathlessly. Saya explained that she thought Kyo didn't want her again, and Kyo, one-hundred percent serious, told her she was crazy. He admitted nothing incriminating; nothing that would betray any feelings he had or might have had, but Saya understood just fine.


	80. Chapter 80

Hey, sorry it has been so long since I have posted any chapters. The truly sick thing is that I finished writing the story about 2 or 3 months ago, and it is just sitting on my computer, waiting to be uploaded! Actually, that's not fully true; I still need to edit it quite a bit, but rest assured, this story will have an ending! (I absolutely HATE it when people don't end their stories!!!) Just out of curiousity, I've been thinking of writing another story, but its not really based on any single book, film or comic, so I was thinking of just attaching it to the end of this story when I'm finished, but I was just curious if there would be any interest in me actually doing that, otherwise I won't go through the trouble and take up space on the website! Let me know what you think, anyone who reads this! P.S. I hope everyone had a nice spring break (if you are in school like me) or at least a nice Easter weekend! Don't get sick eating all those chocolate bunnies! (Does anyone else think eating chocolate in the form of a rabbit is kind of impractical, not to mention sort of strange?)

Chapter Eighty

Life continued on like that for many weeks. There was little change in Saya and Kyo's relationship in front of the others, but Juri and Ichiro could tell something was different; the two were starting to look more and more tired with each passing day. It was only when they were alone that their relationship revealed itself. They continued to make love whenever possible; often at night, after everyone had fallen asleep, or in the bathroom when one of them should have been showering. One day they had even gone for a walk, and after Saya had slipped on a rock while trying to cross the creek and had ended up falling in, she and Kyo began to have a water fight. Yes, quite childish, and it had ended with the two of them returning home very dirty, and yet very satisfied.

It wasn't until several months had passed, and late summer had moved into late autumn, when Saya began to feel very sick.

Well, perhaps sick didn't describe it. She didn't feel awful or anything; she was just very, very nauseous. She tried to hide her "episodes" from Kyo and the others, but it was making her nervous that no one else seemed to be getting sick while she wasn't getting any better. Even Kyo showed no symptoms, and they spent enough time together that, had she had something contagious, he would have contracted it by now.

Then, one day, Saya was staring into the mirror after showering (without Kyo), when she noticed her stomach had gotten noticeably larger. She quickly threw on the clothes she had brought to change into, and, trying not to openly panic, went to go help Juri in the kitchen.

-

It was a very cold day, so Juri wanted to make something hot for dinner. She decided that some meat from the cow Ichiro had butchered would be good. Rice, of course, would accompany the meat. When Saya entered the kitchen alcove while she was preparing dinner, she could immediately tell something was wrong, but she waited patiently for Saya to reveal it herself. It wouldn't do for Juri to work everyone into a fit of anxiety if it turned out to be no big deal. The two of them continued to work for several minutes before Saya said anything.

"Juri?"

"Yes?" She tried her best not to sound too impatient or upset.

"What was it like when you were pregnant with Kazemichi and Kentaro?" Juri's jaw practically hit the floor as her eyes widened considerably. She had known that something had changed between Kyo and Saya, and while she had suspected a romantic relationship, she didn't think that a baby would be involved. Saya was looking more and more frantic by the moment, having seen Juri's expression, as she continued to shakily stir a bowl filled with something that Juri didn't care about at the moment.

"Do you think you're pregnant?" Juri asked in a low voice, hoping Ichiro, Kyo and no one else was currently listening.

"I don't know!" Saya was definitely losing her composure.

"Calm down, it's ok! Um, I had morning sickness," Saya nodded. "I had strange cravings for weird foods I had never liked before," Saya nodded again. "My breasts were tender," Saya nodded very quickly. "It's not so bad, you know; you can continue making love for many more months before you have the baby," Juri said with a devilish grin, trying to get Saya to relax.

Ichiro walked in just then.

"What's wrong with you two?" he asked jokingly, seeing Saya's comical expression of extreme distress.

"Nothing, we were just realizing how little we have of some ingredients that we need to make meals. With the way the temperature is dropping, it will snow soon, so we need to go into town. Aren't you and Kyo going today?" It was Saya's turn to be stunned as she watched Juri talk so calmly to Ichiro despite her own chaotic panic-attack that she had displayed mere seconds ago.

"Yes…I suppose your welcome to come if you like. We'll have to take the van though…"

"That will be fine," Juri answered without letting Ichiro finish. She then pushed Saya up the stairs to get a warm coat so they could leave soon.

-

Kyo had been more than a little surprised when he found out that Juri and Saya were going into town with them. It was quite a drive, and he knew how much Saya detested cars. He was even more surprised when Juri sat next to Saya instead of sitting in the front seat next to Ichiro. He had expected to get to sit with Saya. He shrugged it off as Ichiro started the car, hoping the lovebirds could keep the 'Taros from burning down the house while they were gone.

-

While Kyo and Ichiro were going about their own business looking at saw blades and whatnot for cutting firewood, Juri led Saya immediately into a pharmacy/grocery store. She searched the aisles, dragging Saya along by the hand, until she found the right one. She perused the long shelves, finally picking up a small box. Saya was so nervous and confused that she allowed Juri to drag her along as Juri briskly walked to the back of the store.

"Hey, where are you going?' It was Ichiro calling out after them. They must have been done at the hardware store.

"Saya has to use the restroom." It wasn't really a lie. She really did need to use the restroom; to hide from Kyo and Ichiro while she took the pregnancy test Juri had just taken from the shelf for her.

-

It was several minutes later and everyone's nerves were wearing thin from waiting, no one's more than Saya's. She stood leaning against the wall of the bathroom next to the sinks. Juri leaned against the first stall, close to the sink on which lay the pregnancy test. After five minutes, Juri looked at Saya, and Saya looked back. Juri broke the stare to look at the small plastic strip. It was positive. Saya was going to have a baby. Promptly upon displaying its results to Saya, the girl's mind began to run wild.

'Will Kyo be upset? Will he be angry? Please don't let him be angry…anything but… not that…'

Juri was lucky to catch her before she fell on the ground or hit her head on anything. She began to yell for help, but luckily, remembering the test, was able to put it in the trash before Kyo arrived, throwing open the door and running in. Seeing Saya in a heap in Juri's arms, he immediately began to shout "what happened?!" over and over again while taking Saya into his own arms.

"She said she wasn't feeling well, and she wanted to rest for a moment, and then she fainted…" Juri was trying hard to come up with some sort of excuse. Kyo was obviously very upset, as he put one arm around Saya's shoulders and the other beneath her knees, and picked her up, cautiously carrying her towards the door. Ichiro reached the bathroom in just enough time to open the door for Kyo to carry Saya through without having to negotiate keeping the door open himself.


	81. Chapter 81

Chapter Eighty-One

Saya woke up feeling very hazy and confused. She remembered the test; she was pregnant, but she didn't remember anything else. As she looked around, she realized she was in her room. A fire was roaring in the fireplace, making the room almost too warm for comfort. As she pulled her knees up farther into the warmth of the blanket that lay on top of her, she looked down to see Kyo sitting on the end of the bed, leaning against the wall, staring into the fireplace. Sensing she had woken up by the movement in his peripheral vision, he turned to look at her.

"What the hell happened in there?" he asked, not very nicely.

"I felt ill, and…I don't know, I blacked out!" Saya did not feel like having an argument over why she passed out; he obviously didn't know it was because of the shock that she was pregnant with his child, and she didn't exactly feel like telling him the news right now. Saya sat up in bed, wide-awake with anger now, staring at the fire. Kyo looked back at it too, not wanting to look at her right now. He eventually got up and put another two logs on, and as he walked back, he didn't look as angry. He ended up crawling to the far side of the bed, and laid down, arms around Saya's waist. As she scooted down into the blanket again, she realized how upset and worried he must have been. He had apparently been sitting here next to her for a long time; it was already night.

-

Saya was awakened by Kyo gently rising from the bed. She watched him walk to the fire and place more wood on it without saying anything. When he turned around, he saw her looking back at him, and said what he probably should have said when she first woke up.

"You feel ok?" Saya nodded. He sat next to her on the edge of the bed as she sat up. He stared back at the fire as she watched its light dance across his face and in his eyes. He turned to look at her with them. It was then that he leaned in closely to her, gently placing his lips over hers. It had been a long time since he had been this gentle with her, and she realized once more how much he must have been afraid while she was unconscious. He pulled back, opening his eyes to look at her, and then looked away. Saya wasn't ready for him to pull away yet; she leaned towards him and, taking two handfuls of his shirt, pulled him gently to her as she kissed him softly. It didn't take long for their kisses to grow longer and more forceful. Kyo placed his hands on either side of her face, making sure she couldn't withdraw while he kissed even deeper. Saya stretched her arms further around his back, grabbing another two handfuls of his shirt to draw him even closer. It wasn't long after that that their game of retaliation began; Saya pulled up on Kyo's shirt, pulling it over his head, so he unbuttoned the dress she had been sleeping in; after a while longer, she unbuttoned his jeans, but nothing more, so he undid her bra, but left it on, hanging around her arms. Eventually she pushed off his jeans, with his help, and so he freed her from the bra, and both were left in their underwear, which didn't last long. Saya wasn't afraid as Kyo entered her; Juri had said earlier that no harm would come to the child, and Saya wanted Kyo terribly right now. He moved slowly for a long time while they kissed softly and looked into each other's eyes. Since she had made her confession to him all those nights ago, he had gradually begun to stop avoiding eye contact with her; he never wore his sunglasses in their room anymore. And he would stare into her eyes while they made love. She didn't know it, but he felt the same about her own green eyes. Kyo began to breathe harder, and Saya recognized all the familiar signs. Kyo began to tense up and move faster. He buried his head in her shoulder so she couldn't see his face. Saya had often wished that he would remain in this torture just a little longer; it was her favorite part of being with him, for it was one of the only times that she could truly believe that every part of him longed for every part of her, as every muscle in his body contracted…and then it was over. After a few quick breaths, Kyo lifted his face from next to Saya's and looked down at her. He was always nervous afterwards, she could tell, as if he thought she didn't like being with him. But she didn't think she could explain what she felt as he finished inside of her, so she pushed herself up onto her elbows to meet his lips in a kiss, trying to reassure him he was wanted.

-

The next morning, both Kyo and Saya were awoken to great shouts and the noise of children running up and down the stairs.

"What's going on?" Saya asked sleepily, trying to look back at Kyo who had wrapped his arms around her from behind.

"Who the hell knows, they should just shut the hell up," Kyo said grumpily as he pushed his face deeper into the pillow. Saya smiled; Kyo hated being awoken before he was ready to get up. Then they heard Mahiro yell clearly.

"IT'S SNOWING!!!"


	82. Chapter 82

Chapter Eighty-Two

Saya jumped out of bed, threw on her coat from yesterday and was running towards the door as she was trying to put on her shoes. Kyo looked at her like she was insane.

"Where are you going woman?"

"It's snowing!" Saya said with just as much enthusiasm as Mahiro, in addition to the largest smile Kyo had ever seen.

It had been a long time since Kyo had seen snow; it was more like a dream than a real memory. He had protested Saya going out into the cold after her fainting episode yesterday, but she would not be deterred. She was going to go stand outside and watch the snow fall, even if it was only for a few moments. So Kyo got up as well, and dressed with Saya to go outside.

As Saya ran out the open door first, she thought the yard looked like a winter-wonderland. The ground was entirely covered with a thin carpet of snow, and it had already begun to cling to the branches of the trees, sitting softly on the tops of the large boughs. There wasn't enough to make snowballs yet, but the kids were trying to catch snowflakes on their tongues. Watching them made Saya remember the day before, and as she stood beside Kyo, watching the snow come down from the gray sky, she decided this was as good a time as any.

"Kyo, I have something to tell you…" Kyo looked at Saya with a somewhat worried and yet skeptical expression as his brow began to crease. Saya thought only Kyo was capable of looking both upset and thoroughly annoyed at the same time. "Yesterday when I was in the bathroom, I didn't faint because I was feeling sick…" Saya couldn't look at him; she couldn't stand to read the expressions on his face, or the lack of them. "Juri and I…we…" There was a long pause. "I'm…" She couldn't think of how to start it, so she started from the beginning. "I haven't been feeling well lately. I wasn't sick, but I kept throwing up…"

"So that's what that taste was," Kyo smirked, slightly amused in a disgusted sort of way. He could be so strange sometimes. Saya continued on, looking back towards the trees, feeling Kyo's eyes on her.

"I talked to Juri, and she came up with an excuse to go to the store in town…" Kyo was really starting to resent her tendency to add long pauses in her speeches when she didn't know what to say. If she was sick, he just wanted to know. Couldn't she tell he was becoming very unnerved? She waited a lot longer to finish, and decided just to spill it. "I'm pregnant," she said with a smile that hid a bit of sadness as she waited for his response.

-

As it turned out, Kyo never gave one. He had tripped over the confession in his mind and was left dazed and confused.

'Pregnant? She can't…I can't…This can't…' None of his thoughts actually had endings, they just ran into the beginnings of other ones without any form of completion.

"You can't," he said straight out. Saya didn't realize he wasn't actually talking to her, the words were more for himself, but it still stung. After a while of staring silently at the snow on the ground, and just before she let the hot tears roll down her face, she turned and went inside the house, figuring she was not going to get any sort of positive reaction.

-

Kyo spent the rest of the afternoon sitting on the porch outside, looking at the snow falling on the trees in the distance, turning thoughts over and over again in his overcrowded head. No one had gone outside to console him, because no one knew what to say. Eventually Ichiro came to the conclusion that Kyo would sit out there forever if no one tried to bring him in. Besides, Saya wasn't fairing any better; Juri had taken her upstairs to his and Juri's room to work on some mending. When Juri had made the comment that soon they would be making baby clothes, she could easily see Saya's heart break on her face.

Kyo didn't budge an inch as Ichiro opened the door and walked across the porch to sit next to him. They sat that way for a few minutes, staring off into the distance, before Ichiro decided to just start right in.

"Juri told me Saya was pregnant." There was a pause in which Kyo made no reaction to Ichiro's recap of the previous two days events. "Are you not glad about it?" It was an obvious answer Ichiro thought, but he wanted to hear it directly from Kyo before he tried to beat some sense into the man.

"It's not that." Ichiro was stunned by the softness in Kyo's voice as well as his answer. He replied after pondering over the situation for another moment.

"Are you afraid? Raising children is difficult. Especially in a world that seems to be so cruel. You can't trust it to treat them well, and you think one day they are going to grow up to be able to fend for themselves, and you're going to feel like you've succeeded, but that day never comes. You are always going to fear for them…" It was the first time Kyo had heard Ichiro sound so melancholy. He had never considered that Ichiro had once had a family, children and a wife; the man seemed far too adjusted to living alone. But maybe he was alone because he had been left alone. Kyo took a deep breath.

"I hadn't even thought of that," Kyo responded, sounding even more down than he had been before. Ichiro felt bad for making the man apparently feel even worse about brining a child into the world.

"What is it then? Do you not love Saya? Are you still thinking of leaving?"

'Jesus,' Kyo thought to himself. 'He's going to think I'm crazy.'

"I'm not supposed to have children."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm supposed to be physically incapable of fathering a child."

"How do you know? Were you found to be sterile as a child or something?" Kyo took a long look at the confused man next to him, and knew he would never understand unless he knew it all.

"You're not going to believe me…"

"What do you mean?" Ichiro questioned back, even more confused. Kyo then started in on the second longest explanation he would ever give in his life. But at least it would be practice for the next time he would have to tell it.

-

Ichiro couldn't believe it. It was too fantastical. Too amazing. And yet, it was able to explain everything about his friend that he couldn't understand before. His friend. Ichiro felt that this was the first time that he could truly call Kyo that in all the months they had now spent together.

Kyo himself continued to turn the thoughts in his head. He wasn't upset or angry about the baby. Ever since Saya told him about her pregnancy, he had felt something entirely different than anything he had ever felt, and yet he realized he had felt it for a long time now. He wanted Saya to be entirely his, and only his, and he wanted her to feel the same about him. He understood now why Ichiro and Juri had had a meaningless spiritual ceremony to consecrate their marriage. There was something about it that made one feel as if they were bound together, even though it really did nothing.

"I want to ask Saya to marry me." Ichiro looked up at Kyo after he finished his sentence. It was probably the surprise of the century. "Not that we'll actually marry or anything, but, you know what I mean…. I just can't ask her without telling her everything. That would be unfair. As far as I know, she might not have me after she knows." Ichiro wanted to tell his depressed friend that she would chose him no matter what his past was, because she loved him, but even he wasn't sure that that was true.

The two of them continued to sit outside, staring off into the distance for many more hours without saying anything before Juri came outside to announce dinner. It was one of the few things that would have brought either man inside after such a conversation, but to tell you the truth, neither had much of an appetite that night.


	83. Chapter 83

Chapter Eighty-Three

Saya sat in her and Kyo's room on the bed, looking at the snow falling outside. Shortly after dinner, Kyo had disappeared, and the sound of his bike followed after him into the darkening wilderness. So Saya was left alone. He had chosen not to be the father of their child.

Ichiro had built a fire for her, not saying anything, but she could tell he looked at her with pity. He probably already knew that Kyo wasn't coming back.

She couldn't do anything to pass the time; reading made her want to move around, but it was snowing, so she couldn't go outside. She wanted to talk to someone, but didn't want to depress her partner in conversation or lay the weight of her "condition" on the children, though they would find out eventually. And so she sat gloomily on the bed, until she drifted off to sleep, realizing that this was going to be her life from now on. It would be nothing more than waiting for Kyo to come back, and knowing deep down that he never would.

-

When Saya woke up again, it was late. The world outside the windows was pure black, but, for some reason, the fireplace was still cracking and popping, full of life as it continued to burn on into the night. She had been sleeping with her head at the foot of the bed, so she could stare out the windows, but in that position she was unable to see the rest of the room. As she turned her head upwards to look at the rest of the room, she saw, in the opposite corner, near the fireplace, a figure all in black, his elbows on his knees as he sat in a chair, looking into the fireplace. It was Kyo.

Saya lifted herself to a sitting position on the bed, staring at him unemotionally the entire time. He looked back at her with a similar expression, though his carried a weight that looked too heavy for him to bear. She immediately regretted all of the horrible things she had thought of him all day long and wished he would just come to bed like he always did after he had taken his late shower during the summer days. He stood up and walked to the bed, but sat down on the floor instead, just out of reach from Saya. She understood that he did not want to be touched, so she merely moved to the edge of the bed, where she sat with a view of his profile as he began to speak.

"I was supposedly born roughly 24 years ago now. I say supposedly because it was both a real, and, in a way, not a real birth. I have a total of fourteen parents if you count those who contributed to my genetic sequence, but even though I was implanted inside a woman's womb, she shared no genetic information with me, so I do not count her among my mothers. I don't even know her name." Kyo's explanation continued on as if he were reading something so boring and mechanical as a shopping list. To hear him utter his entire life history to her in such a way, completely devoid of emotion, almost made her cry out for him to stop. "My eye and hair color were created by splicing animal DNA into my regular DNA; it didn't affect the outcome negatively, as you can see, since it was only pigment that they changed, and not actual human features. I have four "brothers," if you wish to call them that. We share varying amounts of the same DNA sequences, but we were all treated with different purposes in mind. They, too, have unnatural hair and eye colors; it makes it easier to identify us. We were test subjects for the army; genetically engineered soldiers. Once we were about four or so, and we were deemed to have no psychological or physical faults, we began to train. I lived with my major DNA contributor when I was younger. He was also my teacher. I mostly learned combat technique; weapons training as well as open hand self-defense and boxing and some various martial art techniques and whatnot. We were employed to find large and powerful resistance groups and take them out. We weren't exactly raised to be decent human beings that would contribute to the world." Kyo smirked. "Not really stellar citizens." Saya shuddered as she remembered that he had said the same thing about Kensuke, and yet she would never have compared the two. Kyo was gentle and kind, even though he didn't show it often; Kensuke had been bitter and angry his entire life, never letting anyone care for him. "I'm sure you've noticed the scar that looks like a burn on my left forearm. We were implanted with microchips that could be scanned for identification and transmitted our location. That scar is what remains from where I removed the chip. It's a burn mark because I had to cauterize it. As far as I can tell, that was the only one on me. I'm assuming that if there were others, they would have found me by now."

"I don't understand," Saya said, even though she knew perfectly well what he had meant by everything. She just wanted to hear it again, or hear more, which ever he decided to tell her was fine.

"I'm basically an expensive killing machine trained from a young age in just about every art of fighting. I know you've noticed all the scars I have; you've asked me about them before. But as for what I'm doing here, all I have to say is that it's not a good idea to spend a lot of money on a tool that feels no allegiance towards you or your causes."

All the fears that Saya had had before were confirmed. Kyo had been in the army, but had been more than just a mere soldier. He was practically an android; lifelike, but unfeeling. Or, at least, he used to be.

"Why'd they make you so handsome then?" Saya asked a silly question, trying to change the mood even the slightest amount.

"Women scientists, you'll have to thank them for liking things that are aesthetically pleasing." Saya giggled. His looks were a little to good to be natural, in case one couldn't tell from his eyes.

"What's the real reason?" Saya asked seriously,

"It's easier to infiltrate towns and villages if people like you. And being handsome lends itself well to being liked."

"Now now, you know that's only true if you've got a good personality!" Saya said with a smile.

"Oh really? Then how do you explain this?" Kyo asked back with a smirk, referring to his own dark personality and yet the ease with which he had been welcomed by Ichiro; he continued to avoid looking at her. There was a long lapse in the banter.

"Why did you come back?" Saya began to feel herself sink into Kyo's despair; her own questions and comments couldn't even remain positive.

"I wanted you to know."

"Why? You could've just kept going and no one would have been the wiser…"

"Do you want that?"

"What do you mean?"  
"Do you want me to leave, now that you know…" Saya had no clue that Kyo was this insecure. He had always seemed so strong to her, and now he seemed as if he was falling apart at the seams. Saya got down on the floor with Kyo. "I'm not supposed to be able to have children. I don't know what's going to happen…" he said without any emotion in his low voice, looking ahead at the fire still.

"No one does." Saya slowly wove her arms around the boy and they sat there like that for a long time. Finally, Saya pulled her face away from Kyo's chest, and, looking into his eyes, leaned forward to kiss him. It was afterward, when Kyo felt somewhat forgiven for his past, though he didn't understand why he had needed to feel that, when he spoke again.

"Saya…" he laughed at the cheesiness of what he was about to say before he even said it as he stared at the ground. "Would you ever consider marrying me?" He didn't look to see her reaction.

"I thought we were already married!?!?" Kyo looked frantically up at her, and was relieved when he saw her huge smile. She had nearly given him a heart attack.

"Sometimes it is frighteningly clear to me just how much genetic material you share with Hotaro." She laughed out loud as he relaxed against the side of the bed.

"If I say yes, does that mean you'll stay?"

"Yes." He said it with all the sincerity he could put into a single word.

"I would have said yes even if your answer had been no." When Kyo looked over at her, he could tell she wasn't lying. He placed his hand alongside her face and they kissed once more.


End file.
